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Examining Multiracial Pride, Identity-Based Challenges, and Discrimination: An Exploratory Investigation Among Biracial Emerging Adults

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Abstract

This study investigated the main and interactive effects of identity-based challenges, discrimination, and Multiracial pride on psychological distress in Biracial emerging adults. Additionally, we examined whether these associations may differ by Biracial sub-group (e.g., black–white, Asian–white, Latinx–white, and minority–minority) given their unique racial experiences. Participants were 326 Biracial emerging adults (Mage = 19.57 years old; 75.2% female) recruited from three public universities in the United States for an online survey. For all Biracial groups, identity-based challenges were associated with greater psychological distress. After testing a series of competing multi-group regression models, results indicated that the relations between distress and our predictors: identity-based challenges, discrimination, and Multiracial pride do indeed differ across Biracial sub-group. The most apparent and unique differences were displayed by the black–white Biracial sub-group. These findings highlight identity-based challenges as a unique risk in the Biracial population and suggest that a principled comparison between Biracial sub-groups is necessary to tease apart group-specific associations between these constructs and psychological distress.

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Data, material, and code for this study are not publicly available.

Notes

  1. In this study Biracial and Multiracial are capitalized as proper nouns to recognize these individuals to challenge the monoracial paradigm of race (Harris 2016) that has historically placed Biracial and Multiracial people in subordinate positions relative to monoracial groups. This subordinate positioning is, partly, perpetuated through recommendations by meaningful guides such as the 7th Edition APA Publication Manual (2020) that tell scholars to capitalize the names of monoracial groups (i.e., white, Asian, etc.) while using lower case letters when writing Biracial and Multiracial.

  2. We recognize the inherent Multiraciality of the Latinx population and that Latinx people may endorse many different ethnicities and races. However, we also highlight the common trend for Latinx individuals to select ‘other’ when not able to select Hispanic/Latino/a as a racial category on forms such as the U.S. Census (Humes, Jones, & Ramirez, 2011), and the fact that Latinxs, particularly those that are darker-skinned, are racialized (Omi & Winant, 2015) through their experiences with discrimination (Bonilla-Silva, 2004). For the purposes of this study, we choose to conceptualize Latinx as a distinct racial group. However, we acknowledge that Latinx may also identify as black or white in addition to ‘some other race’ and that these classifications are complicated and may change over time.

  3. In line with our efforts to challenge the monoracial paradigm of race (Harris, 2016) and place Biracials and Multiracials on par with monoracial groups, we defend the use of ‘Biracials’ and ‘Multiracials’ in the same way the use of the terms ‘Whites’, ‘Asians’, or ‘Pacific Islanders’ is commonplace and deemed socially acceptable.

  4. ‘Multiracial discrimination’ has also been used to refer to discrimination specifically targeted at people because of their membership in multiple racial/ethnic groups (see Yoo et al., 2016). We highlight the term ‘monoracism’ because it speaks to the underlying reason behind this form of discrimination, a dislike/lack of acceptance of individuals who do not fit into society’s notion of discrete racial categories (Harris, 2016).

  5. Because our primary analyses involve multi-group regression models with four distinct groups, excluding these variables greatly simplifies our already complex regression models. For instance, keeping just one of these covariates in our multi-group model involves the estimation of up to 32 additional parameters across the four groups.

  6. By definition, the association between a predictor and outcome must differ in strength and/or direction at different levels of a moderator variable (Barron & Kenny, 1986). If the direction and strength of an association does not depend on the level of a third variable, that third variable is not a moderator.

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Acknowledgements

The LOVING Study Collaborative is a research team consisting of researchers from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Arizona State University, and the University of Minnesota. In addition to the four named authors, members include: Clarissa Abidog, Abigail K. Gabriel, Richard M. Lee, Christine S. Wu, and Hyung Chol (Brandon) Yoo.

Funding

This work was supported in part by a Predoctoral Fellowship provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32-HD07376) through the Carolina Consortium on Human Development, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to N. Keita Christophe.

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  1. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, USA

    N. Keita Christophe, Gabriela L. Stein & Michele Chan

  2. Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

    Annabelle L. Atkin

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  1. N. Keita Christophe
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  • Clarissa Abidog
  • , Abigail K. Gabriel
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  • , Christine S. Wu
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Christophe, N.K., Atkin, A.L., Stein, G.L. et al. Examining Multiracial Pride, Identity-Based Challenges, and Discrimination: An Exploratory Investigation Among Biracial Emerging Adults. Race Soc Probl 14, 22–38 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-021-09325-4

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