Mixed Race Studies

Self-concept and parental values: influences on the ethnic identity development of biracial children

San Jose State University
August 1994
46 pages

Julie Mari Oka

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Psychology San Jose State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts

In this thesis self-concept was measured across three ethnic groups (Japanese-American, Caucasian, and Japanese-American/Caucasian biracial). Forty-eight children divided by ethnicity and gender completed a self-concept measure and a perspective-taking measure. The perspective-taking measure was dropped from the study due to a ceiling effect. The self-concept measure yielded three scores for each child which included an overall self-concept score as well as scores for behavioral and physical self-concept.

Biracial boys and Caucasian girls scored highest when compared to other groups on overall self-concept. Furthermore, biracial boys scored highest on physical self-concept. Biracial girls scored lowest on both subscales. Girls scored significantly higher than boys on behavioral self-concept.

Parents completed a parental questionnaire designed to assess the extent to which parents would like their children to exhibit values and behaviors considered to be traditionally Japanese-American. Although not significant, mothers of biracial children tended to report more of a preference for their children to display traditional Japanese-American values.

Read the entire thesis here.

From the Golden Gate to the Green Mountains: A Hapa Educational Autobiography and Meta-Critical Reflection

University of Vermont
October 2012
65 pages

Noelle Brassey

A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate College of The University of Vermont In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Specializing in English

As a former UC Berkeley undergraduate and a University of Vermont graduate student, this is an educational autobiography of a self-identified Hapa, or mixed-race Asian American, through the lens of race and identity. Exploring what it means to be “white” and “privileged,” and realizing that these concepts—like identity—are fluid, this thesis adopts a dual methodology that includes personal narrative, as well as a meta-critical reflection. This thesis focuses on three memoirs: Bone Black and Wounds of Passion by bell hooks, and Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez, each of which explore themes of reclaiming voice and reconstructing identity with regards to race, class, and culture.

Read the entire thesis here.

The Manifestation of Race in Everyday Communication Interactions in New Zealand

Unitec New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand
October 2012
281 pages

Elizabeth S. Revell

A thesis submitted to the Department of Communication Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Communication

This thesis examines the manifestation of race in everyday communication interactions in New Zealand using an unconventional, experimental methodology. Experimenting with a partial collaborative autoethnographic approach that involved reflexive diaries, interviews, and focus groups as data collection methods, the author and nine other co-participants took part in a collaborative autoethnographic exercise, that required them to focus, reflect on, and discuss together their perceptions of the way race was manifested in their day-to-day experiences, over the period of a month. Co-participants were encouraged to write evocatively of their experiences. The author used her mixed-race identity as an autoethnographic analytical tool as a measure towards resolving her ‘double consciousness’ (Du Bois, 1903). Her own voice, thoughts, and stories of her lived experiences are woven into the study, alongside more traditional analysis. In carrying out this investigation, the author sought not only to generate knowledge in the traditional academic sense, but to facilitate a disruptive, emancipative and emotionally engaging conversation on racism in New Zealand, between herself, her co-participants, and readers.

In answering the main research question about the manifestation of race in everyday communication interactions in New Zealand, the author found that in public contexts in New Zealand, race as a topic is taboo and racists are social pariahs amongst Western, educated, middle-class members of society. Consequentially, race is often manifested in a variety of subtle ways in everyday communication interactions, and is difficult to identify and challenge. The subtle way in which race is manifested in everyday settings masks an undercurrent of prejudice and hostility. Whether or not these hidden tensions will emerge problematically in the future remains to be seen, as New Zealanders negotiate and manage their biculturalism and multiculturalism.

In terms of the significance of race in New Zealand, the author concluded that New Zealand’s racial and ethnic identity is changing (browning), and that the longstanding New Zealand European (White) majority is decreasing in proportion and dominance. Some New Zealand Europeans are consciously and subconsciously trying to assert their authority, refusing to let the idea that a ‘true’ New Zealander is ‘White’ go because of a) a subconscious belief in the superiority of White skin and/or Western culture, and b) insecurity around what will happen to them and their lifestyle, if non-White ethnic and non-Western cultural groups continue to gain in proportion to White, Western groups. As a result, some non-White individuals are experiencing being subtly and overtly ‘othered’, excluded, disrespected, and negatively stereotyped. Being subjected to everyday racism has resulted in some non-White New Zealanders having a fractured sense of identity, and others having adopted the racist worldview of Whites.

In terms of resolving the dialectic of her mixed-race identity, the closure the author had hoped for was not achieved. Instead, she became more conscious of her own racist beliefs and actions, and convinced of the importance of continuing to challenge them.

Table of Contents

• ABSTRACT
• DECLARATION
• CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
  • MY “DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS”: A PERSONAL NARRATIVE
    • First thing’s first: Who I am
    • But: The dreaded question
    • Fleshing out the issue
    • Defining my research topic
  • WIDER SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
  • RESEARCH PURPOSE
  • CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS
    • “Race”
    • “Everyday communication interaction”
  • METHODOLOGY: A PARTIAL COLLABORATIVE AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACH
  • THESIS OUTLINE
• CHAPTER 2: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXT
  • CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS
    • Concept 1: ‘Race’
    • Concept 2: ‘Everyday communication interaction’
  • CONTEXT
    • Multiculturalism and biculturalism in New Zealand
    • Recent signs of ethnic ‘unease’ in multicultural New Zealand
    • Use of the term ‘race’ in New Zealand
• CHAPTER 3– LITERATURE REVIEW
  • RACE IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES
    • The critical turn in communication studies
  • THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
    • Critical Theory
    • General theories of race and racism
    • Theories and concepts from sociology (on the everyday social construction of race)
    • Theories and concepts from social psychology (on contemporary racism)
  • A REVIEW OF RELEVANT RESEARCH
    • …on race and the everyday
    • …on race and the everyday in New Zealand
• CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH DESIGN
  • SITUATING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY ONTOLOGICALLY AND EPISTEMOLOGICALLY
  • METHODOLOGY
    • A qualitative approach
    • Ethnography
    • Autoethnography
    • Partial collaborative autoethnography
    • Co-participant selection
  • DATA COLLECTION METHODS
    • Solicited reflexive diaries
    • Semi-structured interviews
    • Semi-structured focus groups (briefing and debriefing sessions)
  • METHODS OF ANALYSIS
    • Thematic analysis
    • Analysis and discussion in autoethnography
    • ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
• CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS
  • PARTICIPANT POSITIONALITIES
    • Liz:
    • Ameera:
    • Yasmin:
    • Rachel:
    • Timothy:
    • Heather:
    • Lana:
    • Luke:
    • Zane:
    • Natalie:
  • EMERGENT THEMES
    • Theme 1: Everyday living in a multicultural society
      • 1a. NZ European dominance is eroding
      • 1b. New Zealanders are managing this change well
      • 1c. New Zealanders are not managing this change well
      • Concluding notes for theme one
    • Theme 2: References to ‘racisms’ past
      • 2a. Ethnic inequality and redistribution
      • 2b. Crying race
      • 2c. Old racist attitudes
      • 2d. The declining significance of race?
      • Concluding notes for theme two
    • Theme 3: Everyday awareness and negotiation of social hierarchy
      • 3a. White superiority
      • 3b. Negotiating the social ladder
      • 3c. Legitimacy
      • Concluding notes for theme three
    • Theme 4: Conversational tact – Everyday speech conventions
      • 4a. Racialised ‘neutral’ terms
      • 4b. Racial stereotyping
      • 4c. Censoring
      • Concluding notes for theme four
    • Theme 5: Everyday emotional reactions to races
      • 5a. Anger/cumulative anger towards a race
      • 5b. Disgust
      • 5c. Instant connection
      • 5d. Comfort/discomfort
      • 5e. Fear
      • 5f. Romantic attraction/indifference/repulsion
      • Concluding notes for theme five
    • Theme 6: Reacting to everyday racism
      • 6a. Emotional reactions to everyday racism
      • 6b. Dealing with everyday racism
      • Concluding notes for theme six
    • Theme 7: “Race matters to me because I look different”
      • Concluding notes for chapter seven
  • OVERALL CONCLUSION
• CHAPTER 6 – DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
  • THEMATIC DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
    • Theme 1: Everyday living in a multicultural society
    • Theme 2: References to ‘racisms’ past
    • Theme 3: Social status
    • Theme 4: Conversational tact – Everyday speech conventions
    • Theme 5: Emotional reactions to races
    • Theme 6: Reacting to everyday racism
    • Theme 7: “Race matters to me because I look different”
  • HOW IS RACE MANIFESTED IN EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION INTERACTIONS IN NEW ZEALAND?
  • THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE IN NEW ZEALAND
• CHAPTER 7: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
  • RESOLVING MY MIXED-RACE DIALECTIC
  • LIMITATIONS
  • RECOMMENDATIONS
  • SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
• REFERENCES
• APPENDICES
  • APPENDIX A: PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM
  • APPENDIX B: PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM
  • APPENDIX C: PROCEDURAL EXPLANATIONS
  • APPENDIX D: GUIDELINE SHEET FOR DIARIES
  • APPENDIX E: EXTRACT FROM A PARTICIPANT’S REFLEXIVE RESEARCH DIARY
  • APPENDIX F: DEBRIEFING SESSION MAIN CO-PARTICIPANT SHEET
  • APPENDIX G: DEBRIEFING SESSION CO-PARTICIPANT SHEET

Read the entire thesis here.

By Custom and By Law: Black Folklore and Racial Representation at the Birth of Jim Crow

University of Maryland, College Park
2006
222 pages

Shirley C. Moody

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

By Custom and By Law: Black Folklore and Racial Representation at the Birth of Jim Crow establishes folklore as a contested site in the construction of racial identity during the emergence and solidification of legalized racial segregation at the end of the nineteenth century. By examining institutional interests, popular culture performances, and political rhetoric, I demonstrate how representations of black folklore played a seminal role in perpetuating a public discourse of racial difference. Alternately, my work introduces new scholarship examining the counter-narratives posed by nineteenthcentury African American scholars, writers and folklorists who employed folklore in their various academic works and artistic productions as a vehicle to expose
and critique post-Reconstruction racial hierarchies.

In chapter one I reveal how constructions of black folklore in ante- and post-bellum popular culture intersected with emergent white folklore studies to provide a taxonomy for codifying racial difference, while simultaneously designating folklore as the medium through which racial representation would be debated. Chapter two recovers the important, but virtually unacknowledged role of African American folklorists in brokering public and academic access to black folk culture and in providing an alternative to the racist constructions of black folklore prevalent in the post-Reconstruction era. Chapter three re-contextualizes Charles Chesnutt’s The Conjure Woman as both a response to the larger national discourse surrounding black folklore and also as part of a concerted effort among black intellectuals to first expose how perceptions of racial realities were constructed through representations of black folklore, and then to redefine the role of black folklore in African American cultural and literary works.

In sum, my dissertation provides a cultural history of a formative moment in the construction of a late nineteenth century racialized discourse that placed representations of black folklore at its center. My research both recovers the neglected role of early black folklorists and writers in studying and interpreting black cultural traditions and asserts the profound significance of representations of black folklore in negotiating the perceptions and practices that have worked to define US racial ideologies in the nineteenth century and beyond.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• List of Illustrations
• Introduction
• Chapter I: Folklore at the Birth of Jim Crow
• Chapter II: The Hampton Folklore Society and The Crafting of a Black Folk Aesthetic
• Chapter III: Conjure Justice: Charles Chesnutt and the Stolen Voice
• Conclusion: “We Don’t Remember Enough:” Customary Folklore in Ralph Ellison’s “Flying Home”
• Bibliography

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

• 1. Thomas Rice as Jim Crow (circa 1830)
• 2. The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels (Boston, 1843)
• 3. Oliver Scott’s “Refined Negro Minstrels” (1898)
• 4. “The Old Folks at Home”
• 5. “A Hampton Graduate at Home”
• 6. “The Spirit of Hampton”

From page 64:

In a society fraught with racial tensions it would be difficult to overestimate the impact of the popular representations of the black folk, coupled with the intellectual and “scientific” assessments of black folklore, on turn of the century racial politics. As many cultural commentators, past and present, have observed, demarcating racial difference in light of the increasing biological, social and cultural miscegenation came with a host of attendant difficulties. The judges and legislatures who constructed and supported the “one drop rule” recognized the difficulty of visually distinguishing race, realizing that racial identification had to move beyond physical markers. But if discerning race based on physical appearance was difficult, identifying the color of a person’s blood presented an obvious paradox. This dilemma required new indicators of racial identity, and those indicators were found in attention to what were, ostensibly, racially differentiated behaviors, i.e. folk customs. There was an insistence, for example, that blacks could not imitate whites; that the behavioral differences, if not inherent, were so ingrained that they had become “spontaneous” and “natural.” Clearly, dominant interpretations of black minstrelsy as inherent and authentic worked to legitimize segregationist agendas by supplying examples of the kinds of uncivilized behaviors which blacks supposedly exhibited as vastly different from civilized white society.

Read the entire dissertation here.

The Fictive Flapper: A Way of Reading Race and Female Desire in the Novels of Larsen, Hurst, Hurston and Cather

University of Maryland, College Park
2004
391 pages

Traci B. Abbott, Lecturer, English and Media Studies
Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

This study seeks to reevaluate the 1920s icon of assertive female sexuality, the flapper, as represented in the novels of four women writers. Although cultural images often designate, by their very construction, normal and alteritous social categories, I argue that the flapper’s presence and popularity encourage rather than restrict this autonomy for even those female populations she appears to reject, notably lower-class women, nonwhite women, and homosexuals. Specifically, the flapper was predicated upon the cultural practices and beliefs of many of the very groups she was designed to exclude, and therefore her presence attests to the reality of these women’s experiences. Moreover, her emphasis on the liberating potential of sexual autonomy could not be contained within her strictly defined parameters in part because of her success in outlining this potential. Each chapter then focuses upon images of black and white female sexuality in the novels, chosen for their attention to female sexual autonomy within and beyond the flapper’s boundaries as well as the author’s exclusion from the flapper’s parameters.  Nella Larsen’s Passing suggests that the fluidity of female sexual desire cannot be contained within strict dichotomies of race, class, or sexual orientation, and women can manipulate and perhaps even transcend such boundaries. Fannie Hurst’s Imitation of Life offers a critique of the flapper’s excessive emphasis on sexual desirability as defined by conspicuous consumption, maintaining that lower-class white and black women can and should have access to sexual autonomy, while Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston similarly questions the denigration of working-class and non-white women in this model with her affirming view of Janie Woods, but also complicates the cultural presumption that any woman can find autonomy within a heterosexual relationship if such relationships are still defined by conventional notions of gender power. Finally, Willa Cather’s last novel, Sapphira and the Slave Girl, contends modern black and white women have the right to control their own sexual needs within an unusual antebellum setting. Thus, all of these novel provide other models of sexual autonomy besides the white, middle-class, heterosexual flapper while harnessing the flapper’s affirming and popular imagery.

Read the entire dissertation here.

Being Mixed and Black: The Socialization of Mixed-Race Identity

University of Chicago
2012-12-13
92 pages

Brett R. Coleman

Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Chicago, 2012

This study examined the relationship between parental racial-ethnic socialization and racial-ethnic identity development from the perspective of biracial young adults. Despite the recent advances in theory regarding mixed-race identity development, few studies have examined how parents’ attitudes about race and ethnicity influence the identities of mixed-race youth. Similarly, racial-ethnic socialization theory is largely based on the assumption that individuals identify with single racial-ethnic groups that are discrete and mutually exclusive. Participants were eight biracial young adults with one Black and one White parent. Through semi-structured, in-depth interviews, participants revealed that the socialization of their racial-ethnic identities involved balancing discrete and overlapping, mixed and Black identities. The relationship between socialization and identity development was subject to various ecological influences associated with living in a racialized society in which races are historically thought to be discrete groups with impermeable boundaries. Results are discussed in relation to ecological models of mixed-race identity development.

Read the entire thesis here.

“What Are You?”: Racial Ambiguity and the Social Construction of Race in the U.S.

University of North Texas
May 2012
165 pages

Starita Smith

Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

This dissertation is a qualitative study of racially ambiguous people and their life experiences. Racially ambiguous people are individuals who are frequently misidentified racially by others because they do not resemble the phenotype associated with the racial group to which they belong or because they belong to racial/ethnic groups originating in different parts of the world that resemble each other. The racial/ethnic population of the United States is constantly changing because of variations in the birth rates among the racial/ethnic groups that comprise those populations and immigration from around the world. Although much research has been done that documents the existence of racial/ethnic mixing in the history of the United States and the world, this multiracial history is seldom acknowledged in the social, work, and other spheres of interaction among people in the U.S., instead a racialized system based on the perception of individuals as mono-racial thus easily identified through (skin tone, hair texture, facial features, etc.). This is research was done using life experience interviews with 24 racially ambiguous individuals to determine how race/ethnicity has affected their lives and how they negotiate the minefield of race.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
• CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
  • Research Questions
• CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
  • Changing Definitions of Race
  • Race under European Domination
  • The One-Drop Rule or Hypo-Descent
  • Color Stratification among Blacks
  • Passing as White
  • Challenge to the One-Drop Rule
  • Biracial Identity
  • Racial Classifications have Porous Borders
  • Race as a Sorting Mechanism
  • Tri-Racial Isolate Groups
  • The Case of the Mississippi Choctaw Rejected
  • Racial Misclassification and Native Americans
  • Mixed Race Individuals and Kinship Networks
  • Racial Fusion and the Hispanics
  • The U.S. Census and the Social Construction of Race
• CHAPTER 3 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
  • Racial Formation Theory
  • Assimilation Theory
  • The Latin Americanization Thesis
  • Theoretical Perspectives: Discussion
• CHAPTER 4 METHODS
  • Recruitment
  • Data-Gathering Instruments
  • Interview Locations
  • The Interviewees
  • The Interview Script
  • Reflexivity
• CHAPTER 5 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE ENDURES IN A “COLORBLIND SOCIETY”
  • Race in Work and School
  • Family life
  • Romantic and Spousal Relationships
• CHAPTER 6 CONSTANT OBJECTIFICATION
  • Objectification of Native Americans
  • Being Constantly Doubted
• CHAPTER 7 STUBBORN STEREOTYPES
• CHAPTER 8 DEVELOPING AN ADULT CORE RACIAL IDENTITY
  • “We’re All the Same in God’s Eyes, Then How Come I Don’t Look Like You?”
  • Black is Bad
  • Making up Your own Racial Identity
• CHAPTER 9 NAVIGATING THE RACIAL LANDSCAPE: THE MULTIFOCAL RACIAL IDENTITY
  • Pride in Minority Identity
  • Learning to be Resilient
  • Being Flexible under Globalization
• CHAPTER 10 HURTFUL LIVES
• CHAPTER 11 THEORY REVISITED
• CHAPTER 12 CONCLUSION
• APPENDIX A CONSENT FORM
• APPENDIX B INTERVIEWEE PHOTO INSTRUMENT
• REFERENCE LIST

LIST OF TABLES

1. Interviewee Demographic Data
2. Thematic Codingg
3. Sample of Thematic Coding for Indira

LIST OF FIGURES

1. Racialized society
2. Objectification of racially ambiguous people
3. Adult core racial identity

Read the entire dissertation here.

Mixed Experiences: a study of the childhood narratives of mixed race people related to risks to their mental health and capacity for developing resilience

City University London, School of Health Sciences
December 2011
330 pages

Dinah Cecilia Morley

This thesis is submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Community and Health Sciences Research.

Background: The mixed race child population is growing proportionately faster than any other group. Whilst there is a body of research in this country, albeit small, that looks at the experiences of mixed race children, none of this research examines specifically the risks for mental health and the possibilities for developing resilience which may be related to growing up as a mixed race child.

Methods: Twenty-one adults, recruited through the internet, were asked to reflect on their childhood experiences in relation to being mixed race. They were offered a choice of response methods. The majority chose to provide a written account. A thematic analysis was carried out, within a phenomenological framework. A further analysis was undertaken to assess whether risks to mental health or opportunities to develop resilience could be identified in the findings from the phenomenological analysis using known risk and resilience factors relating to the mental health of children and young people.

Results: The data show that there are some additional risks to the mental health of mixed race young people. As well as difficulties experienced in establishing personal identity, they show that there are specific difficulties in secondary school and that young people of mixed race experience racism and prejudice from both black and white peers. The data indicate a capacity for building resilience, necessitated by their mixedness, linked to supportive families.

Conclusions: The overarching findings from this study mirror many of those from other mixed race studies. However this study shows how mixed race young people may experience some additional risks to mental health which need to be understood and considered by professionals in health, social
care, education and justice systems.

Table of Contents

• Index of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements and Declaration of Powers
• Abstract
• Chapter 1: Introduction
  • Background and context
  • Popular discourse
  • Creative writing and personal accounts
  • Demographic trends
  • Reasons for undertaking this study
  • Risk and resilience as a theoretical framework
  • Methodological approach and method
  • Positionality
  • Terminology
    • Race, ethnicity and culture
    • Mental health
  • The Structure of the Thesis
• Chapter 2: A Review of the Literature
  • Chapter overview
  • Mental health and ethnicity
  • Mixed race young people
  • Service delivery issues as they affect young people of mixed race
  • Chapter Summary
• Chapter 3: Risk and Resilience
  • Chapter overview
  • The Literature
  • Risk factors relating to family
  • Risks associated with the wider community
    • The school
    • Peers
    • The community beyond the school
  • Resilience
  • Chapter summary
• Chapter 4: Relevant Demographic Data
  • Chapter Overview
  • Robustness of the data as it relates to mixedness
  • Ethnicity
  • Location
  • Education
  • Crime
  • Victims of Crime
  • Early Pregnancy
  • Children in Public Care
  • Mental Disorder
  • Summary of statistical information
• Chapter 5: Methodology
  • Chapter overview
  • Using phenomenology
  • Interpreter bias and reflexivity
  • Using narrative
  • Rationale for the use of deductive material in the secondary analysis
  • Methodological approach summary
• Chapter 6: Method
  • Chapter overview
  • Participant eligibility
  • The recruitment process
  • The chosen web sites
  • Contacts and participants recruited
  • Sample size
  • Types of responses – pros and cons
  • Confidentiality, anonymity and integrity
  • Reflexive aspects
  • Use of the internet to identify participants
  • Who uses the internet?
  • Other recruitment methods
  • Data quality
  • The thematic analysis
  • Reliability
  • Chapter summary
• Chapter 7: The Thematic Analysis
  • Chapter overview
  • The analysis process
  • Telling the stories
  • Identifying the dominant themes
  • Themes and risks relating to the child
    • Appearance
    • Involvement in anti-racist work of some participants
  • Themes and risks relating to the family
    • Attitudes of family members
    • Access to wider family and visits for parents’ home countries
    • Sibling differences
    • Class
    • Meeting the absent parent
  • Themes and risks relating to the community
    • Mixed race isolation
    • School experiences
    • The multi-cultural nature of the community
    • Access to groups outside the family and school, including black groups
    • How public services respond to children on mixed race
  • Chapter summary
• Chapter 8: The Obama Election
  • Chapter overview
  • Background
  • Participants’ views
  • Chapter summary
• Chapter 9: Analysis of Risk and Resilience Issues
  • Chapter overview
  • Grouping the risk factors
    • Poor self esteem
    • Hostile and rejecting relationships
    • Discrimination
  • Establishing proxy indicators
  • Disconfirming evidence
  • Racism
  • Identity
  • Isolation
  • Overview of risk
  • Resilience
  • The continuum of risk to resilience
  • Chapter summary
• Chapter 10: Theoretical Possibilities: an exploration of ‘risk’ and ‘mixed race’ from a sociological perspective
  • Chapter overview
  • Theorising mixed race in the context of globalisation and the risk society
  • Chapter summary
• Chapter 11: Discussion of Findings and their Context
  • Chapter overview
  • Reviewing and assessing the thematic findings
    • Identity confusion
    • Otherness and isolation
    • Secondary school experiences
    • Racism
    • Family support or lack of it
  • Review of the methodology
  • Policy and practice implications
  • Strengths, limitations and future opportunities
  • Chapter summary
• Chapter 12: Concluding Remarks
• Appendices

Index of Tables

• Table 1: Prevalence of specific child and adolescent mental health risk factors and impact on rate of mental disorder
• Table 2: Mixed race demography (UK) 2001
• Table 3: Mixed race demography (E&W) 2001
• Table 4: Age distributions across the ethnic groups
• Table 5: Location of people of mixed race in the UK – 2001 Census
• Table 6: Educational attainment (higher educational qualification) as a proportion of ethnic population (16-74yrs). 2001 Census E&W)
• Table 7: 5 A-C passes gained by 15-year olds in GCSE and equivalent by ethnicity – England)
• Table 8: Attainment at Key Stage 4 (KS4) – percentage of pupils gaining 5 A*-C grades of pupils of mixed race, by gender, ethnicity and free school meals (FSM) eligibility in England
• Table 9: Criminal justice disposals of young people aged 12-17 by ethnicity
• Table 10: Convictions for drug usage by ethnicity in young people aged 10 – 17
• Table 11: Children in Public Care by Ethnic Group. (DfES 2006)
• Table 12: Initial response grid p.105
• Table 13: Households with access to the Internet in Great Britain
• Table 14: Length of written submissions
• Table 15: Characteristics of participants, showing pseudonyms
• Table 16: Clusters of Themes
• Table 17: Family status of participants
• Table 18: Wider family relationships and influences
• Table 19: Growing up without two birth parents
• Table 20: Indicators of specific risks for mixed race young people
• Table 21: Proxy indicators showing the presence of risk factors in relation to the significant findings for the selected sample

Documents: Introductory Materials, Volume 1, and Volume 2 (Appendices)

Multiple Voices: Racial and Ethnic Socialization Within Interracial Asian and White Families

Alliant International University, San Francisco
2012
138 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3517943
ISBN: 9781267486448

Sarah Kasuga-Jenks

Presented to the Faculty of The California School of Professional Psychology San Francisco Campus Alliant International University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology

The current study focuses on racial and ethnic socialization in Asian and White interracial families. A qualitative study was conducted to examine ways in which parents communicate issues of race and ethnicity to their children. Narrative inquiry was utilized to access the lived experiences of members of interracial families. First, parents were interviewed; then, the entire family was interviewed together and finally, the entire family had the opportunity to review transcripts and results. Family stories were the main unit of analysis; family stories from the parent interview were examined in addition to family stories from the family interview. The guiding research questions included: How do individuals within interracial Asian and White families communicate with each other (e.g., do they use verbal or non-verbal styles and are they more proactive or reactive)? How do parents communicate issues of race and ethnicity (e.g., racial and ethnic identity, participation in cultural events, cultural values, discrimination, etc.) to their children?

Four themes emerged from the interviews: cultural practices, effects of interpersonal relationships, experiences of discrimination, and negotiating identity. Parents utilized a range of techniques, verbal and non-verbal, to communicate issues related to race and ethnicity. Responses varied in terms of which parent culture was emphasized and by whom. Many families did not report actively “socializing” their children about race and ethnicity, but incorporated cultural lessons into daily life as a way of communicating their cultural heritage to their children. Significant differences in terms of communication with children about race and ethnicity based on generational status of parents were not found.

Implications of this study include a better understanding of an understudied population, as well as potentially shaping the way in which socialization is understood in less traditional families (e.g., interracial families). Results from this study help to inform future research focused on interracial families, and specific recommendations for future work are made. Clinically, the results from this study provide practitioners with more information about interracial families to help guide interventions. The current study also contributes to theory on ethnic and racial socialization in interracial families as both parents and children were interviewed.

Purchase the dissertation here.

The Process of Forming a Multiracial Identity for Persons of Three or More Races

Alliant International University, San Diego, California
2012
197 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3524119
ISBN: 9781267582935

Maria Reyna Fowlks

A PsyD Clinical Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University San Diego In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Doctor of Psychology

The number of multiracial individuals (MRIs) in the United States continues to grow. As this number continues to grow, it is likely there will be an increase in MRIs of three or more races. However, the literature has not specifically looked at the experiences and process of forming a racial identity development of individuals of three or more races. This qualitative study based on grounded theory aimed to do this. Twelve MRIs were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Ten themes and 34 subthemes emerged from the data and were deemed significant to the participants’ experiences and development. Themes included: parental influences on racial identity; varied extended family messages, dynamics, and relations; cultural and geographic influences on racial identity; development of racial awareness; wanting to fit in; getting teased and discriminated against; dealing with other people’s questions and assumptions; discovery and development of one’s racial identity; being mixed has had a positive impact on life; and ways to address race and being multiracial with children. Results indicated the process of developing a multiracial identity is complex with many factors interacting and influencing one’s racial identity. A proposed model is presented integrating the findings from this study to describe the experiences and multiracial identity development process for MRIs of three or more races. Finally, clinical implications, limitations of the study, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

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