How Can A Person's Ethnic Background Influence Their Behavior

Embedding race disinterestedness principles into supports provided for young people who age out of foster care can better fix them for a successful transition into adulthood. Child welfare practitioners and policymakers must consider how race and racism affect a immature person'due south child welfare experience and the services and supports they receive. For example, practitioners and policymakers should understand how employment plan outcomes vary past race/ethnicity, or the ways in which access to culturally competent sexual and reproductive health intendance varies by race/ethnicity. This focus on race equity principles ensures that all young people have access to services tailored to their needs.

For practitioners and policymakers to accurately translate data and brand decisions nearly programming for all racial and ethnic groups, researchers must be able to capture someone'southward racial and indigenous identity aslope their outcomes. One mutual resource available to researchers who want to examine outcomes over time is panel, or longitudinal, information, for which the same people are repeatedly and regularly surveyed over an extended period of time. However, researchers should carefully consider how they utilise these data in analysis considering individuals' responses to race/ethnicity and other demographic variables may change over time. When researchers treat race/ethnicity as an unchanging variable they potentially miss important disinterestedness considerations.

Reviews of panel data testify that responses to questions on racial and ethnic identity tin can and do change over fourth dimension. While this is a fairly common occurrence in longitudinal data for respondents of all ages (adolescence through adulthood), such changes may be specially meaningful for young people aging out of foster intendance. These young people'southward kid welfare experiences (e.grand., frequent moves, lack of information most family history, placement in foster homes with parents of a unlike racial and ethnic identity) may leave them without the information needed to grade a good for you racial and ethnic identity. During the transition to adulthood, implicit and explicit biases around racial and indigenous identity from both individuals and systems can create opportunities and barriers at key moments in life, such as pursing postsecondary education or attaining outset jobs. Despite the potential fluidity of racial and indigenous identity, however, this variable is commonly treated as static and unchanging in analysis. To date, there are few resources to guide researchers in designing and conducting analyses that both laurels the racial and ethnic identities of young people and maximize the reliability of the data.

Key takeaways

Racial and indigenous identity formation is a normative developmental process for adolescents and young adults that typically includes many identity changes equally immature people explore their history.
The child welfare system does not consistently provide immature people in or leaving foster care with the historical and family information that assistance shape racial and ethnic identity, which may tiresome this developmental process for young people with child welfare experience.
As researchers increasingly turn to longitudinal information to study the long-term outcomes that immature people may experience—and with an middle toward more equitable outcomes—pocket-size decisions during data analysis (due east.g., which responses to use for racial and indigenous identity when the responses vary over time) can change the final results of the assay.
Evidence-based policy and practice rely on study results to understand what factors have the most impact on young people's lives and to mensurate progress toward equitable outcomes. When a report's results practice not show group differences, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners may conclude that those studied factors require no further attending. In contrast, a report with results showing grouping differences helps identify what factors to leverage in effecting modify.
Any one assay arroyo is not necessarily all-time because the approach chosen is informed by a study's goals. Researchers should exist transparent about how their data are constructed to increment replicability and cross-report utility of results involving racial and ethnic identity.

In this brief, we first provide some background on racial and ethnic identity formation and describe some of the barriers to this identity germination procedure that child welfare system involvement may create for immature people. Next, nosotros qualitatively explore, through interviews with onetime foster youth, why racial and ethnic identity may shift during emerging adulthood, especially amongst young people with foster care experience. The interviews provide context on the importance of honoring a young person'southward chosen identity as that identity shifts. We then explore the practical implications of these identity changes for researchers by quantitatively demonstrating how small decisions made while preparing longitudinal information for analysis tin can produce completely unlike results.

Subsequently describing patterns of racial and ethnic changes observed in our dataset, nosotros then undertake what nosotros call a "three-approach analysis" in which we echo the same assay three different ways, with the just change being how we prepare the racial and ethnic data. Nosotros conclude by discussing the equity implications of existence transparent and detailed when describing how racial and ethnic identity data is used in inquiry studies.

Background

The field's current understanding of race, ethnicity, and racial and ethnic identity has evolved across the notion that people tin be categorized into distinct racial and ethnic groups. Society'south understanding has shifted from assuming accented genetic differences to recognizing the interplay of multiple factors in determining racial and ethnic identity. Factors that interact to shape racial and indigenous identity include phenotypical attributes (e.thousand., skin color, facial features), ancestral roots or common descent (e.g., where a person's ancestors are from), geographical and social context (eastward.grand., traditions of a region in the country), and others' perception of racial categories and boundaries. Along with these external factors that can change over time, racial self-identification is another course of racial and ethnic identity with the potential to shift over time and beyond contexts.

Racial and indigenous identity germination is an ongoing developmental procedure

Racial and ethnic identity germination is a developmental process that begins in early babyhood and sees more rapid development in belatedly adolescence. During emerging adulthood, adolescents experience a critical period of identity formation that involves more utilize of abstract thinking, a more nuanced cocky-identity, and increased awareness of social groups. During this developmental period, young people typically grapple with identity questions and seek out multiple sources of data every bit they explore their ethnic and racial heritage. This process is called racial socialization, and families are the earliest and virtually frequent sources of racial socialization. Conversations, traditions, and exposure to customs from parents and other family members shape the procedure of young people's racial and ethnic identity germination by helping them learn values, activities, and behaviors associated with their racial and indigenous identity, and past preparing them for experiences with racial discrimination and stigmatization. In add-on to this family context, socialization experiences and pressures—such as contact with peers from different backgrounds, exposure to discrimination, and participation in activities related to ethnicity—increase the saliency of racial and ethnic identity during adolescence and early adulthood.

Existing research has demonstrated that racial and ethnic identity fluidity varies widely among different racial groups. A report of linked, individual-level United States Census data from 162 million people from 2000—the showtime twelvemonth in which respondents could select ii or more races—to 2010 establish that about 9.eight meg people (half dozen.1%) changed their race and/or Hispanic origin response. Changes in racial identity were prevalent among respondents who identified as American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Other Pacific Islander, Hispanic, or 2 or more races[one] On the other hand, studies suggest that racial identification for non-Hispanic White, not-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic Asian race groups remain largely consequent. Racial fluidity is also seen in the concept of racial "passing," in which a person of one racial group is perceived instead as a member of another. Individuals who are mixed-race or perceived as racially ambiguous may be able to fluidly pass in this way. Stability or modify in racial and ethnic identity influence how individuals perceive themselves, how others perceive and treat them, and ultimately how they navigate the world.

Child welfare organisation involvement can impede racial and ethnicity identity formation

Every bit with all adolescents and emerging adults, young people with feel in the child welfare system explore their racial and ethnic identity and may experience developmentally advisable shifts in identity. However, child welfare-specific experiences and systemic/structural bug—denied or delayed access to family history, placement in transracial or transethnic foster homes, and blocked access to relatives and other persons with shared racial and ethnic identity—may deeply complicate racial and ethnic identity formation and contribute to further shifts in racial and indigenous self-identification. Recent inquiry has shown higher rates of fluctuation in self-reported racial and ethnic identity amid foster youth than among adolescents in the full general population. For case, young people with foster care feel are more probable to change their race/ethnicity as they age than their peers not in foster care. In improver to the issues discussed above, other child welfare experiences and systemic problems may contribute to disruptions in racial and ethnic identity development, including inaccurate, inconsistent, or missing labelling by professionals in child welfare; loss of family history from intergenerational foster care experience; and experiences of trauma and discrimination in congregate care and foster care settings.

Young people who accept experienced transracial, transethnic, or transnational foster or adoptive placements may face challenges with racial and indigenous identity development due to shifting socialization practices and varying degrees of connection and disconnection with individuals who accept shared identities. Young people who are removed from their families of origin may experience a loss of connectedness to familial and cultural roots that alters their racial and ethnic identity development. For example, it is critical to acknowledge the child welfare organisation's legacy of systematically separating Native American youth from their dwelling and community for placement into White homes. The Indian Adoption Act of 1958, Indian Adoption Projection, Adoption Resources Exchanges system, institutionalization of Native children in remote schools, and additional policies and practices designed to dismantle American Indian and Alaska Native tribes through child removal continue to have lasting implications. The historical dimensions of the Indian kid welfare crisis further highlight the loss and challenges associated with transracial and transethnic placement, as well as the importance of preserving cultural connections and providing young people with admission to familial and cultural history.

In nearly all states, statutes designed to protect everyone'southward right to privacy impede young people who have been adopted from accessing their own records, including nascence certificates, contact information of their families of origin, medical histories (due east.grand., health records), and social family histories (e.chiliad., race, ethnicity, religion). Upon turning 18, young people may request identifying information if their birth parents take consented to the release of that information. Without this consent, getting access to such data is often likewise hard and cumbersome to navigate. Delayed or denied access to family data and history may leave immature people without information that can teach or reinforce their racial and ethnic identity.

Longitudinal data present both opportunities and challenges in agreement identity changes over time

Many research projects are interested in understanding how people'south lives change over fourth dimension and how those changes are related to some of the outcomes that people experience. These projects follow participants over an extended menstruation (usually several years) and survey participants at regular intervals (eastward.m., every six months). This longitudinal way of data collection allows comparisons of the same person across multiple points in time, which typically offers more consistency and certainty than having to compare that person to someone else. In 1 prominent example, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (too known equally Add Health) started in 1994 by collecting a wide range of data from more than 20,000 immature people in grades 7 through 12 during the 1994-95 school year, forth with data from their school, peers, and parents. Between this first 1994 information collection and 2018, Add together Health has added four more waves of data from the same young people into adulthood. This combined dataset has been used to generate thousands of published papers, and has advanced social, medical, and economic understanding of boyish and young developed development.

While longitudinal information let a wealth of contexts to be gathered, such information also accept some complications. Researchers are interested in measuring change in certain factors, but they expect other factors to remain unchanged (due east.g., biological parents or claret blazon)—or, at least, to change in a predictable mode (e.thousand., age). Researchers rely on these unchanging factors to narrow downward the possible reasons for why an outcome happened. For example, if two students in a study on bullying report that they live in the same neighborhood, and then researchers can rule out, or control for, "living in different neighborhoods" equally the reason these two students had dissimilar bullying experiences. The most common choices for these command factors are demographic variables like racial and ethnic identity, age, and sexual identity.

Issues occur when researchers look that a person's survey response to these control factors will not change, but the response does, in fact, modify across surveys. Responses tin can modify for many reasons. Some changes do not reflect a true change, such every bit an mistake in data entry (east.thousand., a participant accidentally selects an incorrect response, or a researcher mishears a participant and writes downward an incorrect response) or participants—and especially adolescents—who intentionally select an incorrect response to be funny. However, the alter in response may likewise reflect the participant's truthful alter. As mentioned in previous sections, racial and ethnic identity tin and does modify. Researchers must decide how to handle these changes when selecting which responses to use for a study.

Young People with Foster Care Experience Highlight Causes of Racial and Ethnic Identity Shifts

Nosotros conducted interviews with six young people who have participated in the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative to learn more virtually racial and ethnic identity evolution. The Jim Casey Initiative aims to ensure that young people ages xiv to 26 who have spent at least 1 twenty-four hours in foster care after their 14th birthday have the resource, relationships, and opportunities to thrive in adulthood. The Jim Casey Initiative currently operates in xvi states beyond the land and runs Opportunity Passport, an asset development and fiscal literacy plan. Young people involved in the Jim Casey Initiative complete a survey when they enroll in Opportunity Passport, and over again every April and Oct while they are active in the program. Our six young interviewees were all formerly or currently enrolled in Opportunity Passport. Of these young people, 4 changed their responses to survey questions near racial and ethnic identity over time, and ii did not; all were over age 18 and identified equally a person of color. We utilized a semi-structured interview guide to conduct a one-hr virtual interview via Microsoft Teams with each young person. After all interviews were complete, nosotros uploaded and coded the transcripts in Dedoose using a coding guide with themes identified a priori (i.e., before coding began), based on the relevant literature available. These themes were updated as the research team coded the data. The following sections present the themes that emerged from 3 topics: participant characteristics, reasons for irresolute racial and indigenous identity, and the pregnant and permanency of racial and indigenous identity changes.

Interview Topic one: Participant characteristics

Current and previous racial and ethnic identity

The about common alter throughout the interviews was for young people to change from indicating i racial and indigenous identity to indicating more than one racial and ethnic identity. This change was most often the effect of young people learning more most their family of origin or ancestry. Young people also reported that learning more virtually what racial and ethnic identity meant to lodge and to themselves led them to report a unlike identity across different rounds of the survey. Young people reported that their own racial and ethnic identity often shifted after they learned about race and ethnicity as constructs rather than discovering new pieces of their own identity.

Influences on racial and indigenous identity formation process

Young people reported a number of sources that influence their electric current and previous racial and ethnic identity. These sources included school, child welfare, family and/or friends, and media, including social media. Several immature people reported that high school and post-secondary education experiences shaped their racial and ethnic identity. Young people spoke nearly teachers' positive and negative influences on their identity. Their experiences ranged from professors at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) helping young Black people experience continued to their culture and proud of their identity to high school teachers making racist comments in the classroom that acquired young people of color to question their own identities and cultures. Young people also spoke about the racial composition of their schoolhouse and the importance, to their ain identity development, of having peers at school who looked like and accepted them.

"This professor helped in making me feel as though it was fourth dimension to claim who I am every bit a whole person. You lot know, [you] don't claim ane part, [you] don't claim half of information technology, you know, [you] don't only merits it when it's, yous know, necessary for a scholarship or necessary for an opportunity. [I] merits it every day of my life and wake up in on that."
"[Later moving several states to be with a family fellow member], when I went to that public schoolhouse in [my state], it was like a game changer for me. I felt like I was learning how to walk all over again. […] Like I was forced to learn almost my culture because that's what was all around. I had to larn how to speak Spanish."

The kid welfare system played a large function in shaping the identities of several young people nosotros interviewed. Young people discussed the ways in which the child welfare system disconnected them from their civilization and exposed them to people of different races/ethnicities just did not teach them most their own identity.

"I was adopted effectually nine [years old], and I moved in with a very different lady. 'Cause I grew upwardly in a, like, Mexican family unit [and] civilisation, and and so when I got adopted, there was a huge shift. I stopped going to bilingual grade. I stopped all the traditions that we were doing, and that really changed my whole [identity to the bespeak that I thought], well, maybe I'yard not Mexican. I'm just plain White 'cause of those experiences [afterwards adoption]."
"When everything happened with foster intendance, I kind of became aback because of my culture. […] You go very ashamed of your identity and your culture because you're in a system where information technology's always, 'You guys did something wrong. Information technology's your civilization: you lot guys are lazy.'"
"[My caseworker] definitely was a huge inspiration when information technology came to just remembering that my Blackness is yet beautiful. You know, even though I was going through the organisation, even though I had those bad days, those dirty days, those down days, you know, I was still beautiful inside, and that's what reflected outside."

Young people reported that family was influential in their racial and ethnic identity development and provided an understanding of their past and ancestry. The young people described both positive influences—in which family unit members were positive part models and taught immature people nigh their culture—and negative influences, in which families did not want to accept certain aspects (e.chiliad., only acknowledging one of a multiracial immature person's races/ethnicities) of the young person'southward racial and ethnic identity.

"[My aunts] were the nigh beautiful people to me. One of my aunts experienced a lot of racism, even though she was lighter skinned. She knew who she was and endemic that. I looked up to them when I was growing up."
"You lot know, when I wasn't accepted by my father'south family, it was hard to identify as who I am considering it's like the office of me that is the near Black, y'all know, doesn't even accept me."

While 4 of the 6 young people reported that friends had influenced their racial and ethnic identity, this influence was not as strong as the influences from family unit or the other sources mentioned in this section (schoolhouse, child welfare, etc.).

"In middle school, my all-time friend was Asian American. When we got older, her mother and my mother did not become along, and [her female parent] fabricated race-related comments against us. That fabricated me question: Is my Black adept enough? Am I going to be able to make friends outside my race?"

Young people reported that media was some other of import influence on their racial and ethnic identity development. As with the other influences, young people reported both positive and negative influences. The respondents mentioned several types of media as influencing their identity, including social media, movies, and television. Some young people reported that media had positively impacted their identity development by expanding their worldview and providing them with the racial and ethnic representation not constitute in their communities. Others reported that media was a negative influence because of negative stereotypes portrayed.

"[Tv] helps you see. I hate to go far all sappy, but you see what you lot're capable of if y'all see, you know, a positive racial influence on tv."
"I saw this movie called Towelhead. It was nearly this Arab American girl living in the suburbs in California. They would call her all kinds of names. […] Moving countries like that [girl in the pic], I idea maybe that'due south how my dad felt. So I thought about how the girl was treated and didn't desire to be treated like that."

Interview Topic 2: Reasons for changing identity

In addition to seeking to understand the sources of influence on a young person'due south racial and ethnic identity development, nosotros asked the young interview respondents to share their perspectives on why they or other immature people might report changes in their identity over fourth dimension. Young people attributed these changes to learning more most their racial/ethnic ancestry, their change in self-view and others' views of them, the child welfare system, and societal pressures. One main reason for why young people changed their racial and ethnic identity was learning new data about their beginnings. Sometimes this information came from family members; other times, information technology was discovered through a Dna examination. Young people reported:

"You know, taking ancestry tests to just confirm or deny [ancestral racial and ethnic identity], yous know, and seeing what the truth actually was. Those helped [class my race/indigenous identity] every bit well."
"[If] y'all discovered something new, and you want to claim that heritage, then that'south more power to you lot because that's who yous are."

In addition to learning new information about their ancestry, young people too reported irresolute their racial and ethnic identity due to changes in how they viewed themselves or in how others viewed them. Changes in young people'southward overall self-perception affected their racial and ethnic identity formation, which included learning more than about themselves, gaining confidence, and addressing internalized racism. Immature people reported:

"Sometimes your ain race makes y'all hate certain things, makes you think that, oh yeah, it'southward not beautiful, or it'southward non okay to be a sure fashion. So, y'all end up hating yourself, or you terminate up but not seeing the dazzler in [your race]."
"I put myself on a pedestal. So I say, you know, where my Blackness is in a higher place all, y'all know, everything that flows through this universe comes from my beauty of Blackness."

Notwithstanding, other people's perceptions of the immature person—in addition to societal pressures—also affected young people's identity evolution.

"[Not identifying as Black gives you] more than opportunities. When y'all place as Blackness, you take less opportunities. When I accept checked the 'Blackness' box on applications, I know I haven't got hired for that reason sometimes."
"I experience like if I do say I'm proud to say I'm Hispanic, and that'south what I want to be, and that's what I am, I feel like I'll only get shut down real quick like 'No, y'all are definitely not that.'"

Our young respondents further highlighted the office of societal pressure level:

"And so [my spouse] lives here in New Mexico, which is non great when it comes to cultural backgrounds 'cause we have so many, like, Natives and Mexicans and Hispanics. So, to exist anything else, it's kind of like […] y'all're kind of an outsider. It'south very judgmental if you're not ane of the two groups [Native or Mexican/Hispanic]."
"While I was growing up, I didn't see myself as Hispanic considering I felt like [Hispanics] were treated different. I didn't place myself as Hispanic because, like, I feel like they were looked at dissimilar, or they stood out different from the crowd, and I didn't wanna get treated different considering of my race."

The final source of influence young people discussed was the child welfare system. While the child welfare system influenced initial racial and indigenous identity, it also influenced changes in that identity:

"Considering of the child welfare system, they're living here now [referencing living in a new place with new traditions], and so I could run across your ethnic identity being inverse considering of how much you're being moved around, where y'all're existence moved to, [and] how different information technology is from where you started."
"I also recollect that non enough attempt is looked into how a lot of these organizations treat unlike people of racial backgrounds [since young people of color written report vastly different outcomes than their White peers]."

Interview Topic three: Meaning and permanency of racial and indigenous identity change

Young people associated their racial and ethnic identity with positive aspects of self-esteem (due east.1000., sense of pride, sense of belonging). These meanings were deeply rooted in who they are as an individual, how they see the earth, and how they desire the world to see them. These meanings were also continued to how strongly they identified with their race/ethnicity.

"It merely screams to me a big role of who I am that, like, if I get lost or confused, I can plough back and expect at my own racial and indigenous background and learn what people in the past did in my state of affairs and how they moved forth and stuff like that."
"To me, my race and ethnicity is my identity. [It offers a] sense of pride of who I am, a way that I can say, This is me, and I'thou proud of who I am, where I come from, my heritage, my ancestors, [and] my family unit members."

We asked immature people who reported irresolute their racial and ethnic identity over time whether they thought the change would exist permanent. Some reported that their racial and ethnic identity was fluid and would keep to evolve and alter, while others stated that their newer racial and ethnic identity was permanent and unlikely to modify again.

"This is forever an evolving and growing expanse for me. I will forever want to know more well-nigh who I am, simply I will never modify who I am. In everyday life, I plan on living and breathing as who I really am … Only I will forever be open to learning more almost myself."
"I feel like I'm still learning equally well. What am I still? Even though I know more than I used to. The more yous know, the less you know."

Three-Approach Analysis Reveals the Impact of Small Coding Changes on Analysis Outcomes

To demonstrate how survey evolution and data analysis decisions can influence results when including data that could change over time—such as racial and ethnic identity—we conducted the same analysis 3 dissimilar means. In using these three approaches, we mirrored mutual decisions made when collecting and preparing panel information for analysis: 1) reporting on race/ethnicity only during the first circular of information collection and assuming information technology does not change, two) assuming that the most frequently reported response is nearly reflective of the individual'south race/ethnicity, or iii) assuming that the well-nigh recently reported response is the most cogitating.

Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative restricted use dataset

The Jim Casey Initiative administers the Opportunity Passport Participant Survey (OPPS) to young people at program entry and then twice a year (Apr and October) across all Jim Casey Initiative sites. Young people are first asked whether they identify equally Hispanic or Latino and so asked to check all options that apply for their racial background, from the following: White, Black/African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Part Native Hawaiian, Other Pacific Islander, Native American/Alaska Native, or Other.

For these analyses, we looked at individuals who classified their racial and indigenous identity equally whatever options other than "Other" on at least two surveys. To protect the privacy of young people and forbid reidentification of individuals, some racial and ethnic identity information was masked. Masked racial and ethnic identity data was combined with the "Other" category, which is self-selected by young people. For case, due to the pocket-size number of surveys in which a young person identified as Native American or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic, all of these instances were recategorized into the Masked/Other category.

Participant-level modify patterns

Of the 1,967 participants in the restricted use dataset who have completed at least two surveys, 329 (or 17%) inverse their racial and ethnic identity at some point. Nosotros categorized these participants into four change patterns: sustained, reverted, alternating, and fluid. The categories are divers below in the effigy. Sustained identity changes were the near mutual, followed by reverted changes, alternating changes, and fluid changes. The majority of the change patterns included immature people who identified as "2 or more races, non-Hispanic (NH)" at 1 point in time.

Participant-level change patterns figure

Survey-level change patterns

In the previous department, nosotros examined participant-level change patterns, which tell us the overall change design for a participant beyond their surveys merely does not tell us which racial and ethnic identities were involved, or how many changes occurred for alternating and fluid changes. To detect these answers, we likewise looked at survey-level change patterns, which compare i survey to the side by side. There were 703 surveys taken beyond 329 participants for which the subsequent survey had a different racial and ethnic identity, meaning that many participants had multiple racial and indigenous identity changes. The most mutual identity change was from a single identity of colour to another identity of colour—the majority of which involved a change to or from "Two or more races, NH." When very few participants study a racial and ethnic identity category in the dataset, nosotros mask that data (i.e., we do not report those frequencies) to protect their privacy; combining these categories in 1 "Masked/Other" category allows us to ensure that all young people of color are captured in our analyses.

Types and descriptions of survey-level change

Dataset construction

We constructed iii versions of the dataset by replacing all of a participant's racial and indigenous identity responses with the identity reported on i) their first survey, 2) their most commonly reported racial and ethnic identity, and 3) their most recent survey.

The first response version of the dataset applies the racial and ethnic identity a participant reported on the first survey they took to all of their surveys. This approach simulates datasets for which racial and ethnic identity is only asked the first fourth dimension the survey is taken.
We also created a version of the dataset containing the racial and indigenous identity that was the most common response across all surveys taken. In instances where there were multiple equally almost common responses, we broke ties using an ordered list that prioritizes the to the lowest degree commonly reported racial and ethnic identities to capture as many instances of those identities as possible.[two] This arroyo assumes that the nigh representative identity is the race/ethnicity the participant most often reports.
The most contempo response version of the dataset contains the racial and ethnic identity that a participant reported on their well-nigh recently taken survey. This assumes that a participant's most recent response is more representative of their identity than prior responses.

Amidst participants who changed their reported racial and ethnic identity at some betoken, the racial and ethnic identity breakdown changed in the following means depending on the dataset construction method.

Number of foster care placements by racial and ethnic identity

To demonstrate how each of the 3 approaches may touch on kid welfare characteristics within a sample, the tabular array below demonstrates the differences in number of placements by racial and indigenous identity. There is not a large difference in counts depending on the approach: Just 17 percentage of survey participants inverse their race/ethnicity response across surveys.

AECF Number of foster care placements table

* F = Start Response; MC = Most Common Response; MR = Most Contempo Response

Ane-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)

The ane-fashion analysis of variance (ANOVA) examines statistically significant differences in the means of three or more unrelated groups—in this case, groups with different racial and indigenous identities. This analysis does not tell u.s. which groups are different from each other, but only that at least two groups are different. We utilized ANOVA to examine how the results of a statistical approach change based on how racial and ethnic identity is categorized. As we evidence beneath, the option of arroyo affects the results, even though all three approaches were similar in the relative size of groups.

First response: We examined the relationship between number of placements and racial and indigenous identity when using the first racial and indigenous identity a young person reported. This did not yield a statistically meaning deviation betwixt groups (F=ane.77; p>.05).
Well-nigh common response: Nosotros examined the relationship between number of placements and racial and ethnic identity when using the most common racial and ethnic identity a young person reported. This did not yield a statistically meaning difference between groups (F=1.9, p>.05).
Most recent response: We examined the relationship between number of placements and racial and ethnic identity when using the last racial and ethnic identity a young person reported. This did yield a statistically significant divergence betwixt groups (F=2.43, p<.05).

Annotation: *p <. 05

Implications

During our interviews, young people reinforced the notion that racial and indigenous identity development is an ongoing process. Nosotros interviewed 4 young people who inverse their racial and ethnic identity and 2 young people who did non change their identity. All interviewees had foster care experience and were historic period 18 or older. Young people in both groups identified several influential sources in their own racial and indigenous identity evolution—and for race/ethnic identity development in general—including school, family and friends, media, and (notably) the child welfare system.

"[Your racial and ethnic identity] affects the way you think, the way you operate, the way you view things, the mode you view life actually. […] Ethnicity makes it more than challenging because people just await at you, and they just stereotype yous."

Child welfare involvement influenced race/indigenous identity development, both positively and negatively. A key theme to these young people's experiences was the repeated culture stupor that can happen with multiple placements. Some of these experiences were affirming of young people's identities and cultural ties, while other experiences isolated and stripped them of the opportunity to form a concrete cultural connexion to a chosen racial and ethnic identity. Ane young person talked virtually the isolation that comes with growing upwards in foster intendance and how it "affects the way yous recall, the way yous operate, the fashion you view things, the fashion y'all view life," with the added layer of navigating indigenous discrimination and stigmatization.

"I lived with many unlike families that had many dissimilar cultures and identities and race. And I just never knew where I fit in anymore. I even so accept a difficult time with it, 'cause I still don't know what is me, and it'south kind of hard."

Young people who changed their racial and indigenous identity described some of their reasons for making the change. These immature people stated that their changing racial and indigenous identity came from a shift in how they viewed themselves and the world, showing the furnishings of their determinative experiences. They spoke to the importance of a strong, positive racial and ethnic identity. Given the multiple sources of influence for young people, experiencing longer stays in foster care and disruptions through multiple or culturally incongruent placements can destabilize young people'southward power to accomplish the foundation of a positive racial and ethnic identity.

The three-approach analysis demonstrates how different analytic methods tin can alter the results—and conclusions—of a study. This analysis used ANOVA to determine whether in that location were racial and ethnic group differences in the number of foster care placements that young people experienced to provide an example using a commonly tracked effect of the kid welfare field. Studies of the number of foster care placements can measure and track progress toward more equitable placement experiences for all young people. In the dataset we used, near 17 pct of survey participants changed their race/ethnicity response across surveys. It would non be unreasonable to dismiss this number of changes and presume that results would be unaffected past an effect that fewer than ane 5th of the study sample had experienced. Indeed, when comparing counts of placement changes for each racial and ethnic grouping, at that place is not much difference amidst the three approaches at beginning glance. We tin can see, however, that the arroyo chosen does outcome in statistically meaning differences, which is the metric researchers use to determine whether group differences have more than just a random risk of existence real. The small shifts in racial and ethnic grouping sizes produced by each approach can be enough to discover differences.

Using a participant's nearly recent response (Arroyo iii) may yield different results from the other two approaches for a multifariousness of reasons. Every bit young people figure out what identity virtually closely matches how they experience, a young person's most recent response may reflect comfy affirmation of an identity. Alternately, since other people'south perceptions play a part in both how a young person may place and in how that young person is treated past society at large, this approach may somehow capture more than of the connection among racial cocky-nomenclature (which response someone checks on a survey), observed race (what race other people would allocate someone as), and reflected race (what race someone thinks other people would classify them as). Qualitatively following up on these response changes may shed more lite on the meaning behind them.

Nosotros do not make a recommendation on which approach is all-time because that decision depends on a researcher'southward goals and report design factors. For case, a report that examines the effects of early life decisions and perspectives on future outcomes may find it most useful to use a respondent's first response. Conveying the outset response forward is the most traditional approach. In dissimilarity, if a researcher is most interested in understanding how more recent experiences accept shaped a person's outcomes, it may be best to utilise the nigh recent response. If a researcher has reason to believe that inverse responses are relatively rare and likely to be data entry errors instead of meaningful data, selecting the nearly common response can reduce some of the concerns nigh information quality. Sometimes, the approach has been selected before a researcher even gets the data. Secondary information analysis—using existing information nerveless by someone else, such every bit federal data—with longitudinal survey information that only asks virtually racial and indigenous identity at the first round of data collection is essentially deciding to use the showtime response. For these reasons and many others, researchers should continue their focus on transparently making and explaining the all-time study design decisions for their purposes.

To better control what changes are affecting the consequence being studied, researchers typically deport a participant'southward get-go response forrard to serve as a baseline measurement for analysis. In our three-approach assay, using either a participant's first (Approach 1) or most common response (Arroyo 2) gives results that are non statistically pregnant. Researchers using either of these approaches would conclude that there are no meaningful differences in number of foster intendance placements among racial and ethnic groups. In dissimilarity, using the response that a participant gave on their most recent survey (Approach 3)—likely the closest reflection of the participant'due south current racial and indigenous identity—results in pregnant differences across racial and indigenous groups. These researchers would probable further explore how the groups differ and what factors tin effect modify for each group. Researchers may then use those results to shape policy or practice by passing results on to decision makers to advance racial and ethnic disinterestedness in foster care outcomes. Across yielding inconsistent results for a unmarried study, these discrepancies could make information technology difficult for other researchers to reproduce the findings of past studies. What is clear is that how researchers choose to handle race/ethnicity data matters.

Conclusion

Data is an integral tool in addressing racism and advancing racial and ethnic equity within the kid welfare organization. Among other elements, we must empathize how people'south called racial and ethnic identities are being represented in the data. Researchers make numerous decisions when preparing data for analysis, including how to handle racial and ethnic identity data. The consequences of these often-opaque decisions are magnified in panel studies because researchers must determine how to handle inconsistencies in participant responses over fourth dimension.

For studies that involve longitudinal surveys of young adult respondents, inconsistency in self-reported racial and ethnic identity may merely reverberate the typical developmental process. Young people solidify their racial and ethnic identity throughout their youth equally they explore what race means to them, to other people in their lives, and to gild. For young people with foster intendance experience, however, aspects of their racial and indigenous identity development typically discovered through years of interactions with family members may be unknown until much afterwards in adolescence or young adulthood. Shifts in cocky-reported racial and ethnic identity—specially to and from an identity of color—tell an important story for these young people.

In the absence of clarity on how researchers handle changing responses to race/ethnicity questions within a study, we may be making faulty comparisons across studies that paint an incomplete picture of participants' experiences. Without a clear understanding of how race and ethnicity are categorized within a study, we cannot honor young people'due south identities. Furthermore, researchers and those who utilise research findings (e.g., policymakers) might miss of import strengths or disparities across racial and indigenous groups.

Acknowledgments

This research was funded past the Annie Due east. Casey Foundation. Nosotros thank them for their support but acknowledge that the findings and conclusions presented in this report are those of the authors lone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Foundation.

Contributions

We thank the young people with foster care experience who shared their experiences in interviews and reviewed the qualitative sections crafted from those interviews. Additionally, we thank several colleagues who provided input on early on drafts, including Karin Malm and Porsche Boddicker-Immature. Nosotros also give thanks our colleagues at the Annie E. Casey Foundation who provided input on the projection and a review of the manuscript, including Sandy Wilkie and Jeff Poirier.

Suggested citation

Flannigan, A., Rosenberg, R., Liehr, A., Dalela, R., & Sanders, M. (2022). Researchers should understand and adapt race and ethnicity data that change over time. Child Trends: https://world wide web.childtrends.org/publications/researchers-should-sympathize-and-adjust-race-and-ethnicity-data-that-change-over-time

[one] The Census combines "American Indian" with "Alaska Native" into ane racial group and "Native Hawaiian" with "Other Pacific Islander" into one racial group. Here, we listing the identities separately equally the cited authors did to acknowledge that, while the grouped identities tin can overlap for some people, they are not interchangeable identities and do not correspond a single monolithic identity.

[ii] The priority listing used to interruption ties betwixt the most common response is equally follows: Native American or Alaska Native NH, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander NH, Asian NH, Black NH, Ii or more than races NH, and White NH. For case, if four surveys were taken—two that indicated Native American or Alaska Native NH and ii that indicated White NH—the racial and indigenous identity that was used for this method was Native American or Alaska Native NH.

[three] Data for Asian, NH and American Indian and Alaska Native, NH young people are censored due to minor sample sizes.

[4] Data that are censored due to modest sample sizes are represented past a nuance.