Wijeyesinghe dissertation 1992 LINK

2010

A “biracial baby boom” has taken place in America (Root, 1992). More than six million people chose to check more than one box on the 2000 census and according to Herman (2004), children and youth constituted forty-two percent of the American multiracial population. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of biracial college students in order to understand the specific issues related to their racial identity development. Nine biracial individuals participated in this phenomenological qualitative study. A variety of factors emerged (parental influence, social networks and appearance) as determinants to how these biracial individuals self-identified. Participants also reported the specific challenges and benefits to being biracial. These findings present implications for the formation of a biracial identity development theory. These findings also have implications for Student Development programming targeted toward biracial college students.

Identity is a term that is difficult to define, yet every human being has one. It is a strong indicator of how people will act and defines them in an important way and is a reflection of one’s self and self-understanding. Identity is an important aspect for all humans, but it is an especially interesting trait when describing biracial individuals due to their multiracial background. The biracial demographic is growing quickly from that of the past, so it is important that their unique situation be researched. This study explores the family influence on biracial identity choice by gathering data using both a questionnaire and a focus group. The findings concluded family does have a significant, yet indirect, impact on the racial identity choice of their biracial children by encouraging individuality and allowing the person to choose their racial category themselves.

New Directions for Student Services, 2008

1992

for all of her work transcribing the audio tapes of the interviews; Judy Connelly, Gary Malaney, and Liz Williams of S.A.R.I.S. for their assistance with WordPerfect 5.1; Cindy Hardy for her expertise and assistance in meeting the formatting requirements of the Graduate School. In addition, Nancy Kaminski was an invaluable help with coordinating calendars to allow me to maintain ongoing contact with Bailey Jackson. Several friends and colleagues provided me with the emotional support which I needed to complete this dissertation. I send my love and appreciation to

The Sociological Quarterly, 2002

Current research on racial identity construction among biracial people derives primarily from small convenience samples and assumes that individuals with one black and one white parent have only two options for racial identity: "black" or "biracial." Rockquemore's (1999) taxonomy of racial identity options is used as a framework to synthesize existing research and to generate hypotheses that are explored using survey data from a sample of 177 biracial respondents.'Ihe findings support a multidimensional view of racial identity by illustrating that biracial people make various identity choices, albeit "choices" that are differentially available due to an individual's structural location. The multiracial experience has been depicted in social science research (Root 1996), American literature (Sollors 1997), and popular culture (Jones 1994) as one of "betweenness" and "marginality." Uncertainty, confusion, and tragedy have characterized the lives of biracial people as they straddle the volatile and shifting racial divide in the United States. Multiracial, as compared to multiethnzc, individuals perccive the relationship between their mixed parentage and their self-identity differently. White ethnics with multiple backgrounds experience ethnicity as a "symbolic" identity that can shift and change through individual choice with little or no social significance for their life chances (Waters 1990). Multiracial and biracial individuals, in contrast. arc considered to have little choice about their racial identity, and their lives are significantly impacted by the apparent absence of that choice (Root 1990).l Much of the social psychological research, past and present, depicts the racial identity options available to biracial people as falling into one of two binary categories

libres.uncg.edu

For many years, scholars have focused on analyzing, interpreting and producing models of identity and identity development. In the 1950s with his book Childhood and Society . Erik Erikson building on Freud's work developed an eight stage model of identity development that covered the entire lifespan. This model became part of the education of mental health practitioners who could use it to augment their understanding of particular diagnoses of the many DSM that we have had to all learn about. His identity development stages describe the poles of each stage that a person will confront at approximate times of life. Thus the infant struggles with the pole of trust versus mistrust and the older adult facing the declining period of life confronts ego integrity or despair. While Erikson attempted to provide a more universalistic understanding of identity by overcoming the sole emphasis on sexuality that Freud's work was centered upon, recent scholars have argued that no comprehensive analysis can be reached without attention to other identity issues. Researchers in the mental health field and in the academic sciences are now aware that identify is not only a "human" issue, that is one that ALL humans cope and deal with, but that identity is influenced by race, gender and sexual orientation. In the following brief summary of work on identity we wish to focus on race, although some of the issues can be applied directly to issues of gender and sexual orientation. The infant's resolution of the trust/mistrust identity issue manifested itself later in life as an adult issue. Since racial identities are learned very early in life, they work as a lens for interpreting, understanding, experiencing and participating in the world as well as a way of connecting with and identifying with others. These identities can change when they are challenged by life experiences. This suggests that any discussion of "universal" identity processes needs to be supplemented by discussions of racial identity. Race dictates how gender, sexual orientation and other aspects of identification are experienced, practiced and processed. We cannot talk about separate gender or sexual orientation models without keeping in mind that White and non-White women, for example, may differ greatly in their development and identification in the same stage of the life cycle. Having a model of racial and gender identity development for our clients allows us to be much attuned to our clients' sense of self and provides us with a more sensitive and perceptive understanding of the way they will view us and their world. We will now summarize some of the major racial identity theorists.

Asian American Journal of Psychology, 2(2), 79–90, 2011

The term multiracial is complex. Recent research has adopted a multidimensional view initially proposed by Rockquemore and colleagues (2002, 2009) for examining racial identity among Black/White biracials. This approach has acknowledged the social construction of race and broadened the range of racial identity options beyond the two “traditional” options of being “Black” or “biracial.” This study was designed to further assess this framework by examining a more diverse multiracial sample from Canada and the U.S. (N = 122). Both the Black/White biracials (n = 38) and Asian/White biracials (n = 40) showed great variability in their selection of Rockquemore’s multiracial identity categories, but the pattern of responses differed across the two groups. In addition to revealing different patterns of identity selection between Asian/White and Black/White biracials, findings demonstrated the importance of identity validation by others and its relation to conceptions of the self. Having a multiracial identity that is validated by others (as opposed to invalidated or contextually-dependent identities) was associated with higher levels of identity integration and self-concept clarity. Theoretical implications for extending a multidimensional model to other biracial groups are discussed.

STUDY GUIDE, 2012

New Perspectives on Racial Identity Development, second edition takes a critical look at how race and racial identity are experienced and understood given the changing demographics of the United States and the dynamic nature of the social, cultural, and political climate in which models of identity develop and evolve. Authors explore the impact of various approaches to human development, current social forces, and emerging frameworks from related disciplines and interrogate, critique, and revise their work. Readers are presented with updated models, tools, and pedagogical practices that enable them to understand and study racial identity within a cultural context where race and other identities are socially constructed, and carry signifi cant social, political, and group meaning. In addition, they are challenged to think of identity in a more holistic and global perspective given the signifi cant attention paid to intersectionality and other frameworks throughout the text. Chapter authors use multiple vehicles, including historical and theoretical analysis, research studies, and personal narratives to illustrate the connection between theory and the lived experience of individuals. Chapters in the fi rst section of the book highlight the history and evolution of theoretical frameworks related to race and identity across seven racial groups. Authors in the second section provide insight on the complex interconnection between race and other social identities, the enactment of identity across situations and contexts, and pedagogy and practice related to teaching about racial identity.