Racial identity development among college students with parents from different heritage groups was largely unexplored until the 1990s, when two forces--one demographic, the other theoretical--converged to stimulate interest in understanding the experiences and identities of biracial and multiracial youth. The increasing number of students from two…

Using an ecology model of human development, frames the exploration of racial identities of 38 college students with multiple racial heritages. Maps the influence of interactions within and between specific environments on students' decisions to identify in one or more of five patterns of mixed race identity found in a previous study. (Contains 43…

This paper addresses the growing interest among social scientists in studying the experiences of so-called mixed-race (or multiracial, biracial, or mixed heritage) individuals, when the study of multiraciality risks reinforcing the notion of fixed races. Distinguishing mixed-race people as a category assumes that there are pure races to begin with…

In 1997, the Office of Management and Budget revised guidelines for treatment of racial and ethnic data, adding a requirement to allow respondents to indicate more than one race and mandating a change in all federal data collection and reporting by January 1, 2003. Nearly 2 years after the deadline for implementation, however, higher education…

This study explored the interaction of multiracial identity development and college campus contexts in the experience of 24 biracial or multiracial college students attending three institutions an Ivy League university, a Catholic university, and a liberal arts college. The study applied qualitative grounded theory as framed by postmodern racial…

This study examined how campus peer culture influences the ways in which multiracial students make meaning of their racial identity, and applies Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of cognitive development to analyze elements in the college environment that stimulate or inhibit identity development. Discussion of the situation of multiracial…