Understanding the Identities of Mixed-Race College Students Through a Developmental Ecology Lens

Journal of College Student Development, May/Jun 2003 by Renn, Kristen A

The identities of mixed-race students in my study can be arrayed in five non-exclusive patterns (two or more racial categories, situational identity, multiracial, one racial category, opt out/deconstruct racial categories). Thirty-three of the 38 participants identified in more than one pattern, leaving 3 who identified only as one racial category and 2 who identified only as multiracial. The ability of students to move among identities, or their decision not to, was related to two factors: (a) permeability of boundaries around social and physical spaces defined in part by racial and ethnic identity, and (b) the extent to which students felt like they fit in or belonged to those spaces (Renn, 2000). Students who experienced peer group boundaries as more permeable were more likely to identify differently according to their setting, whereas students who experienced those boundaries as rigid were more likely to identify in fewer patterns. Furthermore, the extent to which students felt welcomed and fully part of racially defined spaces (e.g., Black Caucus, La Fuerza Latina, etc.) influenced their motivation to move across peer group boundaries.

How, though, do the full range of environmental factors influence mixed-race identity and racial identification? What individual traits and developmentally instigative characteristics lead some students to one pattern of identity and some to one or more others? And can we as educators use this information to improve the quality of campus climate vis-à-vis bi- and multiracial identity development? In this section I will apply Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1993, 1995) PPCT model to understand more fully the influence of the college environment on multiracial identities.

Person

In examining racial identity development in college students, key elements in the Person component of the PPCT model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1993, 1995) include family background and parents' heritage, degree of cultural knowledge transmitted to the student before college, prior experiences with members of their own and other cultural groups, and physical appearance (Renn, 2000; Renn & Arnold, in press). Students' unique characteristics, skills, and knowledge, combined with their propensity to seek or avoid explorations of racial identity (a developmentally instigative characteristic), led them to certain campus microsystems and away from others. David (all names are pseudonyms; a table indicating the identity patterns of quoted students is included in the appendix), a senior, said, "I think when I started [college] I was so into exploring my Japanese-ness that I hung around with a lot of Japanese people, like from Japan." Similarly, Kayla signed up for a group independent study project to learn Tagalog, the native language of her Filipina mother, and found a new group of friends among the other Filipino-American students; four of them planned to room together for their senior year.

Process

Key to development is the increasing complexity of interactive Processes in which the individual is engaged (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1993, 1995). Cognitive demands placed on multiracial individuals to make sense of the artificial system of racial categorization in the United States usually begin well before college with the "What are you?" questions of schoolmates and curious adults (Kilson, 2001 ; Wallace, 2001). Many of the participants in my study arrived at college already able to explain, if not in these words exactly, the social construction of race; then features of the college environment caused them to think more and, often, more complexly about race, culture, and identity. Dan's involvement with an orientation week activity prompted him to reflect on the idea of race: