The explorer's edge: Racial-ethnic identity exploration confers early adolescents of color with protection against racial-ethnic discrimination in a co-sibling control study

Abstract

Racial-ethnic identity development may help adolescents cope with racial-ethnic discrimination. Exploration reflects efforts to understand one's racial-ethnic background, whereas commitment represents a sense of connection to one's racial-ethnic group. The present study investigated whether these identity components moderated associations between discrimination and psychopathology symptoms one year later among 1,184 adolescents of color (ages: 11–12; 52% female, 48% male; 35% Black, 36% Latino, 3% Asian, 26% Other youth of color; Waves 3–4: 2019–2022) nested within 656 families. In sibling fixed-effect models, adolescents reporting greater racial-ethnic identity exploration than their siblings showed weaker associations between discrimination and psychopathology symptoms. Racial-ethnic identity commitment did not moderate these associations. Findings underscore the developmental significance of identity exploration as a protective process during early adolescence.The present study examined how developing a racial-ethnic identity helps adolescents of color cope with discrimination. Researchers compared siblings with one another in the same family and focused on two racial-ethnic identity dimensions: exploration (i.e., actively learning about one's race-ethnicity) and commitment (i.e., feeling a strong sense of belonging with one's racial-ethnic group). Results showed that adolescents reporting more discrimination than their siblings also reported more symptoms of psychopathology one year later. However, adolescents who engaged in more identity exploration than their siblings were less harmed by discrimination. In contrast, simply feeling a strong sense of commitment did not provide the same protection. Actively exploring one's identity may be a key source of resilience for early adolescents of color.