Multiracial Identity Integration: Perceptions of Conflict and Distance among Multiracial Individuals

• Main Authors: CHENG, Chi-Ying, LEE, Fiona
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2009
• Subjects: Multicultural Psychology; Personality and Social Contexts; Social Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/621; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/1620/viewcontent/Multiracial_identity_Integration_2009_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This article examines how multiracial individuals negotiate their different and sometimes conflicting racial identities. Drawing from previous work on bicultural identity integration (see Benet-Martinez and Haritatos, 2005), we proposed a new construct, multiracial identity integration (MII), to measure individual differences in perceptions of compatibility between multiple racial identities. We found that MII is composed of two independent subscales: that describes whether different racial identities are perceived as disparate, and that describes whether different racial identities are perceived as in conflict. We also found that recalling positive multiracial experiences increased MII, while recalling negative multiracial experiences decreased MII. These findings have implications for understanding the psychological well-being of multiracial individuals, and the development of social policy and programs catered to this population.