Variations in Bicultural Identification Among African American and Mexican American Adolescents

TLDR

The study aimed to identify how minority adolescents navigate dual cultural identities by examining 46 Mexican American and 52 African American students in Southern California high schools. Researchers interviewed participants about their ethnic, American, and bicultural sense and administered questionnaires assessing ethnic identity, American identity, other-group attitudes, self-concept, and anxiety. Qualitative analysis revealed three bicultural identification patterns—blended, alternating, and separated—whose American identity and other-group attitudes varied significantly, while ethnic and American identities were largely uncorrelated, underscoring a multidimensional bicultural perspective.

Abstract

To identify the ways in which minority adolescents deal with being part of two cultures, we studied 46 middle- and working-class Mexican American and 52 middle-class African American students from ethnically diverse high schools in Southern California. Participants were interviewed about their sense of being ethnic, American, and bicultural, and they also completed questionnaire measures of ethnic identity, American identity, other-group attitudes, self-concept, and anxiety. Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed three types of identification patterns: blended biculturals, alternating biculturals, and separated adolescents. Scores on American identity and other-group attitudes differed significantly among the identification patterns. Ethnic and American identity were generally uncorrelated, supporting the multidimensional (vs. linear) view of being bicultural. The results illustrate the varied types of identification manifested by ethnic minority adolescents in relation to their two reference gro...