NCJ Number
156970
Journal
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry Volume: 65 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1995) Pages: 125-130
Date Published
1995
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The data presented here, obtained from the Brown Interracial Young Adult Interview, were used to examine aspects of racial identity and conflict among 119 offspring of interracial relationships.
Abstract
Some of the subjects had been raised in almost all-black communities, but most had grown up in racially integrated or predominantly white settings. The results showed little or no evidence that most interracial people view themselves as black when they reach adulthood. Rather, most respondents increasingly saw themselves as interracial. The reduction of emotional turmoil associated with interracial identity may be attributed to the fact that a synthesis of black and white identities had been achieved, and a new, integrated identity configuration had been formed. The societal misidentification of participants seemed to arouse conflicts in many of them. The inability to openly accept both parts of the racial heritage was a constant underlying source of emotional tension for many of these young adults. 4 tables and 14 references