In the United States, one does not need to go far to encounter situations in which racial and ethnic dynamics are at work. Youth are bombarded with messages about race and ethnicity in their everyday lives. Such stories, images, situations, and broader conversations often evoke fear, pain, and guilt among even the most socially conscious adults…

The purpose of this study is to examine how parents' documentation status informs their ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) practices and the subsequent implications for Latinx youths' psychological adjustment. The mixed-methods approach combined convergent and exploratory sequential designs to explore the breadth and depth of Latinx parents'…

The current study investigated the role of ethnic-racial identity (ERI) on early adolescents' school adjustment, as moderated by their school friends' aggregate ERI. The study drew data from a longitudinal socioemotional project in a Midwestern U.S. middle school. Surveys were administered twice over a 6-month interval with a sample of 161 African…

This study sheds light on the interrelations of universal, school-based social-emotional learning strategies and ethnic-racial identity over time. We assessed exposure to social-emotional learning practices and ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution among 367 middle school students (70% African American, 30% Latinx; 51% girls) across 3…

The developmental significance of youths' racial identities during adolescence is well established. It is less clear how puberty, a normative process, influences the relationship between racial identity and adjustment outcomes during adolescence. This study examined whether puberty moderates the relationship between racial identity dimensions and…

Although ethnic and racial identity (ERI) are central to the normative development of youth of color, there have been few efforts to bring scholars together to discuss the theoretical complexities of these constructs and provide a synthesis of existing work. The Ethnic and Racial Identity in the 21st Century Study Group was assembled for this…

This study examined the influence of earlier neighborhood experiences on trajectories of racial centrality and regard among Black youth. Data were drawn from a sample of Black 11-to 14-year-old youth (N = 718) in the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study, a data set that permits the examination of structural and subjective neighborhood…

This article reports the findings of an ethnographic study of Black identity and achievement in one predominantly White high school featuring a racially stratified academic hierarchy (RSAH). Foregrounding the experiences of three exceptionally achieving Black girls against those of other high-achieving but less stellar students, the study…

The authors examined relationships among racial identity, school-based racial discrimination experiences, and academic engagement outcomes for adolescent boys and girls in Grades 8 and 11 (n = 204 boys and n = 206 girls). The authors found gender differences in peer and classroom discrimination and in the impact of earlier and later discrimination…