There is vast support in the racial-ethnic identity literature that there is a positive association between racial-ethnic identity and psychological well-being. The current study calls attention to the possibility that there may actually be heterogeneity among racial-ethnic minority group members regarding this link whereby the pathway to psychological well-being may involve an alternate identity that accords limited importance to race and ethnicity. We utilized cluster analysis with two independent datasets (N = 414, N = 506) to examine trends within the data based on the most frequently referenced measure of ethnic identity—Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; Phinney in J Adolesc Res 7(2):156–176, https://doi.org/10.1177/074355489272003, 1992)—several of which are in-line with the findings of extant research. A four-cluster solution fits the data the best. The first two clusters we observed fit with identify profiles already observed in the literature. Cluster 1 (High) included participants with high levels of ethnic identity and high levels of well-being. Cluster 2 (Low) was comprised of participants with low levels of ethnic identity and well-being. Of interest was Cluster 3 (Alternate), which revealed a pattern not recorded in previous research whereby participants had low levels of ethnic identity and high levels of well-being. Cluster 4 (Enhanced) presented an ethnicity-mental health connection similar to that of Cluster 1, but participants in this group had high scores on the MEIM with even more elevated ratings of well-being. Therefore, simple linear depictions of the association between the MEIM and indicators of well-being may not fully capture the complexity of the relationship. In contrast to what has been previously asserted, some individuals may achieve well-being through something other than ethnicity.

中文翻译：

---

发现替代的种族认同轨迹：MEIM和心理健康的聚类分析

种族民族认同文学得到了广泛的支持，即种族民族认同与心理健康之间存在正相关。当前的研究提醒人们注意，种族之间的少数族裔成员之间可能存在这种联系的异质性，由此通向心理健康的途径可能涉及对种族和民族的重视有限的替代身份。我们利用两个独立的数据集（N  = 414，N = 506），以根据最常引用的族裔认同度量（多族族裔认同度量（MEIM; Phinney in J Adolesc Res 7（2）：156-176，https://doi.org/10.1177））检查数据中的趋势/ 074355489272003，1992），其中的一些与现有研究的结果一致。四集群解决方案最适合数据。我们观察到的前两个聚类与文献中已经观察到的识别特征相吻合。第一组（高）包括种族认同感和幸福感高的参与者。第2组（低级）由种族认同感和幸福感较低的参与者组成。有趣的是第3类（替代），该类揭示了以前的研究中未记录的模式，即参与者的种族认同水平低而幸福感高。聚类4（增强型）呈现出与聚类1类似的种族-心理健康联系，但该组参与者在MEIM上得分较高，幸福感等级更高。因此，简单的线性描述MEIM和幸福感指标之间的关联可能无法完全捕获关系的复杂性。与先前所断言的相反，有些人可能通过种族以外的其他方式获得幸福。