How youth come to understand their social identities and their relation to others’ identities can have important implications for the future of our society. In this article, we focus on how ethnic-racial identities (ERI) can serve to promote (or hinder) collective well-being. We first describe the nature of change in ethnic-racial identities over the course of childhood and adolescence. We then delineate three pathways by which youths’ ERI can be a mechanism for productive intergroup relations and thereby collective well-being as a: (a) basis for understanding differences and finding commonalities across groups; (b) promotive and protective resource for marginalized youth; and (c) springboard for recognizing and disrupting marginalization. This article concludes with how youths’ ERI can be nurtured into a source of resilience and resistance in the face of racism and xenophobia. Moreover, we urge researchers to consider the role ERI plays in guiding youth to challenge and resist marginalization.

青年如何理解他们的社会身份以及他们与他人身份的关系对我们社会的未来具有重要意义。在本文中，我们关注民族-种族认同 (ERI) 如何促进（或阻碍）集体福祉。我们首先描述了在童年和青春期过程中民族-种族身份变化的性质。然后，我们描绘了三种途径，通过这些途径，青年的 ERI 可以成为一种有效的群体间关系机制，从而作为集体福祉：(a) 理解不同群体之间的差异和发现共同点的基础；(b) 边缘化青年的促进和保护资源；(c) 识别和破坏边缘化的跳板。本文最后介绍了如何将青年的 ERI 培养成面对种族主义和仇外心理时的韧性和抵抗力的源泉。此外，我们敦促研究人员考虑 ERI 在引导青年挑战和抵制边缘化方面的作用。