Rice study shows more interracial children question their identity

Rice study shows more interracial children question their identity

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

With the rising number of interracial marriages, more children are questioning their racial identity. Currently, 6.4 percent of all U.S. children live in households headed by interracial married couples, and the number of children likely to deal with the racial-identity question will continue to grow.

It’s something that children of same-race parents never have to think about, said Rice University sociologist Holly Heard. Heard and Rice colleague Jenifer Bratter, both assistant professors of sociology, collaborated on research to understand how children from mixed-race families identify themselves.

“Children do not racially identify in a vacuum; multiple factors are involved,” Heard explained. “However, the important influence dads have on racial identification became very clear.”

The study provided three measures of racial identification: an exact match to the father’s race, identification to both parents’ races or no acknowledgment of the father’s race or ethnicity. “Black fathers stood out as having a much more direct line to influencing their child’s racial identity than any other race,” said Heard. “Their children were three times more likely to indicate an exact match to their father’s [race] and almost eight times more likely to include their father’s race in their own racial identity.”

Heard believes it’s possible that this stronger effect could be linked to the “one-drop rule,” a cultural convention dictating that anyone with even a small amount of African ancestry — just one drop of blood — would be labeled as black or African-American. However, with the “one-drop rule,” Heard expected children to exactly match their father’s race every time, discarding the race of the mother entirely. “Instead, we’re finding more evidence that the father’s race is being included [along with the mother’s], which tells us these children are aware of the option of choosing multiple races.”

Heard said this could be indicative of a new “one-drop rule,” one that allows additional races to also be incorporated. “That reflects more of what is going on socially as well,” she said.

For example, the 2000 U.S. Census, for the first time, allowed people to identify more than one race, and one in 40 Americans indicated multiple racial backgrounds. “We know interracial marriages are increasing,” said Heard. “Will we see a parallel in the number of people who are identifying themselves as multiracial?”

The authors also found that time spent in father-child interactions may encourage or influence a child’s racial identification. They looked at nine different measures of father involvement — including level of parental control and “social closure” (how closely parents keep track of their child’s friends and those friends’ parents) — and found that the only one that directly impacted racial identity was activities. The number of activities that a father participated in with his kids had a strong effect on their either exactly matching or including his race.

According to Heard, it’s likely that activities create opportunities to talk to children about what race means and to explore and experience ethnic and cultural specifics that can be passed on. “Every father-child activity within a period of a month corresponds to a 34 percent increase in the likelihood that children will match with the race of their fathers. There is a 36 percent increase in the likelihood that children will include their father’s race when identifying the races to which they belong.”

Heard and Bratter are working on a parallel piece on how a parent’s racial identity impacts parent interaction with their children and how relationships change in parenting roles and styles when interracial or multiracial identities are brought in. “We are especially focusing on mothers,” said Heard, “since mothers tend to be more involved with their children.”