Promoting adolescent adjustment by intervening in ethnic-racial identity development: Opportunities for developmental prevention science and considerations for a global theory of change

Abstract

Identity formation is a fundamental developmental process that has significant consequences for youth adjustment during adolescence and beyond. This article presents evidence indicating that ethnic-racial identity, specifically, is an important developmental competency on which prevention science should focus in the interest of promoting positive youth development. Findings from the initial efficacy testing of the Identity Project, an ethnic-racial identity prevention program grounded in developmental theory, are presented and discussed. Moreover, preliminary evidence of the intervention’s potential when implemented by teachers is introduced, drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data from a recent study. Taking a broader perspective, future directions for research are presented with a specific focus on considering how experiences of ethnoracial marginalization and racialized othering in countries across the globe may make this work relevant to contexts outside the United States. Finally, the possibility of a global theory of change is introduced, and the potential benefits of implementing programs such as the Identity Project in other countries are discussed.

Keywords

Ethnic identity racial identity adolescence intervention

This article is an expanded version of a keynote address delivered at the 2022 International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development Biennial Meeting, in which I presented three key ideas: (1) Ethnic-racial identity formation is an important developmental competency on which prevention scientists must focus, (2) the Identity Project (IP) school-based curriculum provides one example of how we can intervene in this developmental process, and (3) experiences of ethnoracial marginalization and othering across the globe suggest that we should explore the possibility of a global theory of change and the potential benefits of implementing programs such as the IP for positive youth development in other countries. Ultimately, I urged our scholarly community to move beyond the fallacy that issues of ethnoracial marginalization are exclusively a “US problem,” consider how ethnoracial othering may be taking place in other national contexts, and continue to explore whether ethnic-racial identity-focused interventions could benefit youth across the globe. I begin with a focus on defining ethnic-racial identity and presenting the evidence that supports this notion that it is an important developmental competency on which we must focus.

Ethnic-Racial Identity Formation as a Developmental Competency

As a developmental scientist who focuses on studying adolescent identity development in context, my work on identity formation has been largely grounded in two conceptual notions. First, that identity formation is a key developmental task of the lifespan that gains momentum during the period of adolescence (Erikson, 1968). From a psychosocial developmental perspective, the period of adolescence brings an increased focus on individuals trying to understand who they are, who they were, and who they will become; this increased emphasis on exploring and defining one’s identity is largely due to significant cognitive changes taking place during this developmental period, which enables young people to think about themselves in more abstract and complex ways and, importantly, to reflect on their thinking (Erikson, 1968). Furthermore, as individuals develop a greater sense of clarity regarding the personal meaning of their identity, which is achieved via in-depth exploration, this contributes to a greater sense of identity synthesis and cohesion and less role confusion, all of which are critical for individuals’ positive psychosocial functioning, and promote one’s ability to engage in positive relationships with others and to develop a positive self-concept (Erikson, 1968). Second, my work is also grounded in notions from social identity perspectives (Tajfel & Turner, 1986; Turner et al., 1987) suggesting that individuals’ conceptions of their identities are heavily context dependent such that a person’s self-concept is largely informed by how salient certain social group memberships are in a particular social context and that a person’s self-concept develops in large part based on how they personally view the social groups to which they believe they belong, as well as their perceptions of how others view these same social groups.

With this broader conceptual framing as a backdrop, I conceptualize ethnic-racial identity as the aspect of one’s social identity that (1) is derived from individuals’ ethnic-racial group membership(s), (2) is informed both by individuals’ ethnic heritage and racialized experiences in a specific sociohistorical context, (3) captures individuals’ feelings and thoughts about their ethnic-racial group membership(s), and (4) reflects the extent to which individuals have engaged in a process to gain knowledge about their ethnic-racial group(s) and developed a sense of clarity regarding the personal meaning that ethnic-racial identity has in their lives (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014). An important distinction in this conceptualization is between ethnic-racial identity process and content. Ethnic-racial identity process refers to how individuals come to understand the implications of race/ethnicity and its role in their lives. It is captured by the concepts of ethnic-racial identity exploration, or the extent to which individuals have explored and gained knowledge regarding their background, and ethnic-racial identity resolution, or the sense of clarity or resolve that individuals feel regarding the personal meaning of their ethnic-racial identity for their sense of self. In contrast, ethnic-racial identity content refers to the affect or attitudes that individuals hold regarding their ethnoracial group membership. Concepts such as ethnic-racial identity affirmation or private regard (i.e., positive or negative personal feelings that individuals have about their ethnoracial group membership) or public regard (i.e., the positive or negative feelings individuals believe that others have about their ethnoracial group membership) are examples of ethnic-racial identity content (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014).

Why Is Ethnic-Racial Identity an Important Developmental Construct on Which to Focus?

The concepts of race and ethnicity, and particularly ethnic-racial identity development, have been particularly relevant and salient to my work because, throughout my career, I have focused almost exclusively on studying the development of ethnoracially minoritized youth in the context of the United States of America. What we know about the U.S. context is that all people in the United States experience a racialization of their identities based on race (phenotype), ethnicity, immigrant status, language, accent, documentation status, religion, and the intersection of these multiple social identities. Thus, during the developmental period of adolescence, when individuals are deeply engaged in a search for understanding and meaning-making of who they are, who they were, and who they will become (Erikson, 1968) and are also focused on understanding who they are in relation to others around them (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), ethnic-racial identity development becomes a relevant and important part of the identity development process in this social context. This social identity is salient in the United States because of the prevalence of ethnoracially based inequities stemming from a socially constructed racial hierarchy in which ideologies of White supremacy and anti-Blackness predominate and determine differential access to power and resources based on race in the United States (Bonilla-Silva, 2014; Rogers et al., 2021). According to self-categorization theory, in societies where inequities based on a particular social identity are pervasive, that social identity domain will be salient (Turner et al., 1987); thus, it follows that ethnic-racial identity formation is an important developmental construct among adolescents growing up in the United States.

Indeed, there is a plethora of evidence noting that issues related to race and ethnicity are salient to young people in the United States. Adolescents are bombarded with messages regarding race and ethnicity on a daily basis in the multiple contexts in which they find themselves, including virtual and in-person experiences (Rivas-Drake & Umaña-Taylor, 2019). Youth regularly engage with messages related to race and ethnicity from media (e.g., movies, music, and social media), exchanges with their peers, interactions with their family, and experiences in society more broadly (e.g., Jones & Rogers, 2022; Sladek et al., 2022; Tynes et al., 2019). Thus, the salience of race and ethnicity for adolescents in the United States makes this an important social identity on which young people are focused and trying to understand as they are questioning and exploring their identities and trying to gain a sense of clarity regarding who they are who they can become.

In addition to ethnic-racial identity being salient, however, a focus on ethnic-racial identity is also important because of the significant ethnoracial disparities in health and academic adjustment in which youth of color are at disproportionate risk for maladjustment, and which demonstrate that being a member of an ethnic-racial minoritized group can, in fact, be a developmental risk factor. There is overwhelming evidence that existing disparities in health outcomes are largely the result of experiences of ethnoracial marginalization emanating from systemic racism in the United States (Colen et al., 2018; Lewis et al., 2015; Neblett, 2019); and meta-analytic findings from studies focused on adolescents support this assertion and extend it to disparities in academic outcomes (Benner et al., 2018). These inequities have significant implications for young people from minoritized backgrounds and, ultimately, for our society at large, as these indices of adjustment are highly correlated with morbidity and mortality (see Benner et al., 2018, for a review). Thus, ethnoracial minoritized status is a clear developmental risk factor because it puts young people at risk for experiences with ethnoracially based discrimination, and with discrimination comes significant risk for maladjustment. We see this with respect to indices of health, general well-being, and academic adjustment.

Considerations of Risk and Resilience

All of this paints a rather bleak picture. Marginalization based on ethnoracially minoritized group status poses significant risks for development and adjustment. Yes, this is true. However, a risk and resilience framework (Luthar et al., 2000; Masten & Coatsworth, 1998; Rutter, 1987) encourages us to consider opportunities for disruption of these pervasive risks. Resources and assets in young people’s lives can promote resilience by significantly reducing or eliminating the impact of risk; and they can do this by serving as promotive and/or protective factors. This is where ethnic-racial identity comes in. Ethnic-racial identity can serve as a promotive and protective factor, thereby offsetting the negative impact of risk on adjustment. These notions are consistent with a prevention science framework, which suggests that we can effectively prevent maladjustment and promote adjustment by building on, strengthening, and supporting developmental competencies that serve as protective factors and promote resilience (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2009). Drawing on a risk and resilience perspective, I conceptualize adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity as a developmental asset that can promote positive outcomes in the face of adversity.

Empirically, we have accumulated a wealth of evidence pointing to ethnic-racial identity as a developmental competency for young people. First, considerable evidence demonstrates that as young people do more to explore and resolve their ethnic-racial identities, they demonstrate better adjustment (e.g., higher self-esteem, greater school engagement and belonging, higher academic achievement, higher life satisfaction) and lower maladjustment (e.g., depressive symptoms, engagement in risky sexual behaviors, substance use, deviant peer affiliations), as documented in numerous studies (for a review see Umaña-Taylor & Rivas-Drake, 2021) and in meta-analyses (e.g., Miller-Cotto & Byrnes, 2016; Smith & Silva, 2011). I argue that these psychosocial benefits come about because engaging in the processes of ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution provides young people with (1) a more mature understanding of their ethnoracial minoritized status, (2) a greater sense of self-assuredness and clarity regarding their ethnic-racial background that can serve to protect their psychosocial adjustment (e.g., mental health, academic outcomes) in contexts of ethnic-racial based threats (e.g., discrimination), and (3) tools with which to better understand and cope with negative ethnoracially based experiences, thereby limiting their impact on adjustment (Umaña-Taylor, 2016).

In addition to empirical evidence demonstrating links between ethnic-racial identity and adjustment, we also have accumulated a significant empirical base of cross-sectional (Martinez & Dukes, 1997; Phinney, 1989, 1992) and longitudinal (e.g., Douglass & Umaña-Taylor, 2015; French et al., 2006; Gonzales-Backen et al., 2016; Huang & Stormshak, 2011; Matsunaga et al., 2010; Syed & Azmitia, 2009; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2009, 2015) studies demonstrating that ethnic-racial identity follows an age-graded developmental progression such that from early through late adolescence youth are increasingly exploring their ethnic-racial identity and gaining greater clarity about this domain of their identity. This is likely due to the tremendous changes we see in brain maturation during adolescence (see Steinberg, 2005, for a review). There are important developmental changes taking place in the brain during adolescence that make ethnic-racial identity development particularly relevant and salient because young people are gaining cognitive maturity that enables them to think about more abstract concepts such as race/ethnicity, they are increasingly socially aware, and are increasingly focused on defining who they are in a more multifaceted and complex way. While these biological changes are transpiring, young people are increasingly gaining more autonomy and spending more time in diverse settings and contexts, which opens up their social worlds in a way that can increase exposure to greater ethnoracial diversity and experiences—another potential prompt for increased exploration of one’s identity.

Taken together, ethnic-racial identity is a socially and developmentally salient construct during the period of adolescence, and the abundance of evidence demonstrating its positive links with adjustment and negative links with maladjustment support the notion of ethnic-racial identity as a developmental competency in which we must invest as we consider how to promote young people’s positive development. Indeed, intervening in ethnic-racial identity can provide one avenue with which to promote positive youth development, especially among youth of color, and thereby reduce or minimize the ethnoracial disparities discussed above.

Furthermore, these disparities may be minimized via various mechanisms when we target the ethnic-racial identity development of students from minoritized and majority backgrounds. First, the potential benefits for youth from minoritized backgrounds are clear, given the abundance of evidence of promotive effects of ethnic-racial identity development for psychological and academic outcomes among youth from ethnic-racial minoritized backgrounds (e.g., Umaña-Taylor & Rivas-Drake, 2021), coupled with the fact that ethnic-racial minoritized youth experience significant marginalization in multiple facets of the U.S. education system, ranging from structural factors such as academic curricula or texts that do not represent or value their backgrounds (e.g., Lucy et al., 2020; Nojan, 2020; Paris, 2012) to individual experiences of marginalization such as ethnic-racial discrimination from teachers or peers (e.g., Benner et al., 2018; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2015). Reconceptualizing and restructuring these educational experiences by centering minoritized students’ ethnic-racial identities in the classroom can support their learning and engagement in important ways that ultimately lead to better academic and psychological outcomes (Dee & Penner, 2017; Paris, 2012).

The mechanisms for impacting those in the ethnic-racial majority (i.e., White students), however, are likely to be different due to their positionality and subsequent experiences as a function of society’s ethnoracially based hierarchical structure. White youth are navigating issues of identity in a context where their backgrounds have historically been seen as normative, and the socio-politically dominant nature of their group membership has resulted in a lack of awareness of ethnic-racial identity (Helms, 1990). However, the current highly politicized and polarized national context characterized by ethnic-racial hostility and conflict (e.g., banning of books focused on race, ethnicity, or documentation status in schools; “Critical Race Theory,” 2022) has made issues of ethnic-racial identity salient for all; thus, for White youth, the IP can serve as an initial prompt for increased personal awareness and preliminary exploration into this aspect of their identity (Umaña-Taylor, 2018)—a necessary step for White racial identity development (Helms, 1994). Overtime, engaging in this developmental process can support White youth as they process feelings of confusion, rage, and guilt that often accompany White racial identity development (Helms, 2020)—processing these feelings are critical to building a healthy understanding of themselves that recognizes both the positive aspects of their cultural heritage and the systemic nature of racial privileges associated with Whiteness, which has been closely intertwined with their heritage (Wantchekon & Umaña-Taylor, 2023). This increased awareness can positively inform White youths’ mental health, as they gain the tools with which to better understand their social context; it can increase their positive attitudes toward building relationships with others from different ethnic-racial groups through a better understanding of their own identity (Satterthwaite-Freiman et al., 2023); and it can increase their feelings of agency toward contributing to a better society (Wantchekon & Umaña-Taylor, 2023). Indeed, we found preliminary evidence of the latter in a recent study when a White student shared that she appreciated that the IP was helping her to see injustices and that it made her want to do and learn more about how she could make a difference (Wantchekon & Umaña-Taylor, 2023). These notions are consistent with Helms’ (1994) work, noting that developing a healthy White identity contributes to building positive attitudes toward intergroup contact and a non-racist White identity (Helms, 1994)—both of which are essential toward improving ethnic-racial relations and promoting a more equitable society (Satterthwaite-Freiman et al., 2023).

Thus, there is much to be gained through intervention, and the question then becomes, how can we promote ethnic-racial identity development among adolescents? Furthermore, is there a way to do this within the school setting, knowing that education is compulsory through middle adolescence in a majority of states in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2017), which may make this an ideal way to reach the largest number of youth, and such an approach may also be ideal for avoiding selection bias? These were the ideas and questions that were foundational to the development of the IP.

The IP as One Example of the Potential for Intervention

The IP was developed as a school-based, universal health promotion intervention designed to advance individuals’ ability to engage in the developmental competency of ethnic-racial identity development; it was targeted to the general population of youth, rather than specific to high-risk or at-risk youth exclusively; and was also targeted to youth from all ethnic-racial backgrounds, rather than one specific group (Umaña-Taylor, 2018). This latter point was important because it recognized that the content of youths’ ethnic-racial identity exploration will vary, but the process of engaging in exploration to develop one’s ethnic-racial identity is universal across individuals from majority and minoritized backgrounds (Helms, 1990, 1994).

The curriculum consists of eight lessons that last about an hour each and are designed to be delivered once a week. The theory of intervention for the IP is grounded in the developmental notions introduced previously. Namely, that gaining a sense of clarity regarding the role of race and ethnicity for one’s overall sense of self through a process of exploration and reflection, and feeling confident about the meaning and importance that one attaches to one’s ethnic-racial background, all contribute to individuals feeling a greater sense of global identity cohesion and less identity confusion—all of which promotes psychosocial adjustment (see Umana-Taylor & Douglass, 2017, for a review of the development of the IP curriculum, and Umaña-Taylor, 2018, for an in-depth discussion of the theory of intervention).

We intentionally focused on the developmental period of middle adolescence because of typical gains in social and cognitive maturity during this developmental period that enables and primes processes of exploration and resolution regarding relatively abstract concepts such as race and ethnicity (Umaña-Taylor & Douglass, 2017). In addition, we specifically targeted ninth grade (i.e., typically ages 14–15 years in the United States education system) because the transition into ninth grade is typically characterized by a move to larger and potentially more diverse schools, which can increase adolescents’ exposure to difference and has been demonstrated to prompt changes in ethnic-racial identity (French et al., 2006).

Thus, the IP was designed to be school-based, delivered by one person, and to specifically target youths’ ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution. The curriculum provides students with strategies, tools, and the time with which to discuss race, ethnicity, and identity in the classroom setting, explore their own ethnic-racial identity, learn about their peers’ and teachers’ ethnic-racial identities, and reflect on the meaning of this aspect of their identity for their sense of self. The IP also is a manualized curriculum that enables educators to have planned activities and a learning arc in which students are introduced to and given the opportunity to share their knowledge about basic concepts related to race and ethnicity, explore their identities in relation to these concepts, think about themselves and others in the context of these concepts, and ultimately feel a sense of agency in deciding who they are and how they will think of themselves with respect to race and ethnicity.

Original Efficacy Testing of the IP

To initially test the efficacy of the IP, we conducted a small-scale randomized controlled trial in the Southwest United States with 218 students across eight classrooms, with four classrooms randomly assigned to receive the IP, and four classrooms randomly assigned to receive a contact-equivalent control curriculum focused on exposing students to educational and career opportunities after high school. The control and IP curricula (1) were taught by the same facilitators (myself and a postdoctoral fellow), (2) assigned students the same amount of homework, and (3) provided students with the same amount of contact time with facilitators. Also, the control curriculum was designed to mirror the pedagogical approach of the IP curriculum such that if students brainstormed on their own and then were placed in small groups to discuss a topic in an IP session, students in the control curriculum were engaged in this same process for the content they were covering in the paired session of the control curriculum—essentially, the only difference between the intervention and control conditions was the content of the curriculum.

Consistent with the demographics of the larger school, the sample for this study was ethnoracially diverse (36.6% White, 30.3% Latino, 24.3% Black, 5.9% American Indian, 2.8% Asian American), with half of the students identifying as male and the other half as female. Students were surveyed four times over a 67-week period (see Umaña-Taylor, 2018, for a detailed description of the methods and results). In line with our theory of change, we found significant increases in adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity exploration during our 12-week post-test (i.e., Time 2) for the intervention group but not the control group. We also found that, only for youth in the intervention, program-induced changes in exploration at Time 2 significantly predicted increases in ethnic-racial identity resolution at our 18-week post-test (i.e., Time 3; see Umaña-Taylor, Douglass, et al., 2018). Furthermore, findings from our year-long follow-up indicated that the increases in ethnic-racial identity development that we found at our 12- and 18 week post-tests significantly predicted higher grades, higher self-esteem, lower depressive symptoms, and increased global identity cohesion (i.e., assessed with the Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory; Rosenthal et al., 1981) at Time 4 (see Umaña-Taylor, Kornienko, et al., 2018). In addition, we did not find significant differences between White students and students from minoritized backgrounds in any of these associations. Overall, our findings demonstrated that a program that provides youth with strategies, tools, and opportunities with which to explore and evaluate the relevance of their ethnic-racial identity can result in youth engaging in greater ethnic-racial identity exploration and, in turn, developing a greater sense of clarity regarding their ethnic-racial identity (i.e., ethnic-racial identity resolution). These changes were positively associated with adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment and negatively associated with maladjustment 1 year later.

What Do Students Think About the IP?

The results from our experimental data were important and exciting, and they demonstrated that we could experimentally induce changes in adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity development. What they could not tell us, though, was what, exactly, students were engaging with during the intervention. What was it, specifically, about the curriculum that was resonating with them? One of our newest projects (i.e., the My Life My Identity (MLMI) study), co-led with Drs. Michael Sladek and Dalal Safa, has enabled us to gain a more nuanced understanding of students’ perspectives.

The MLMI is a longitudinal study examining how adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity changes over the high school years, with a focus on students attending a high school in the Northeast United States whose teachers were trained to implement the IP in their ninth grade U.S. History class. Parental consent and youth assent was obtained from 180 students (42.2% male, 50.6% female, 7.1% other gender) comprising an ethnoracially diverse sample (38.4% Latino, 34% White, 15% Black, 9.4% Asian American, 3.3% other; 86% U.S.-born; 71% had at least one non-U.S.-born parent). On average, participants were 14.11 years old (SD = .33). In addition to completing self-administered surveys that mirrored the data collection timeline of the original efficacy trial, students also completed a series of 16 daily diary check-ins (i.e., two per week) over the course of the fall semester when their teacher was implementing the IP. Students completed the daily diary check-ins using their own devices (e.g., smartphone, tablet, and computer). The daily diary check-ins provided the first data we have available directly from students sharing how they are experiencing the IP lessons.

Our preliminary exploration of students’ open-ended responses to one of the daily diary check-in questions (i.e., “What did you enjoy the most about the most recent IP lesson you had in your U.S. History class?”) has revealed five general themes, providing important insights into what students may be finding most engaging about the curriculum. First, students mentioned appreciating the opportunity to explore and share their identity with their classmates, particularly without the fear of judgment. This theme was evident with quotes such as “Got to share things about myself without the fear of judgement” (Latino male, U.S. born); “I liked that everyone was free to share anything they thought was important about their identity” (White female, U.S. born); and “I liked that their [sic] is no wrong answers in how you see your own ethnic-racial heritage” (Latino male, U.S. born). These responses suggest that the curriculum is, in fact, engaging students in the key target of our intervention: ethnic-racial identity exploration. Furthermore, it is particularly encouraging to hear that students believe the curriculum is providing an opportunity for them to engage in this process without the fear of being judged.

A second prominent theme was an appreciation for connecting with peers and building a sense of community. Student comments that reflected this theme are: “probably sharing and learning about my and my classmates enthnic [sic] racial backgrounds” (White gender fluid, non-U.S. born); “Finding out some things my classmates and I have in common” (Black/African American female, U.S. born); “I liked that I got to explore my own identity as well as learn about others identity’s [sic]” (White male, U.S. born); and “I liked learning the different parts of myself that I never really thought about. I also liked learning about everyone and their identities. I saw that my classmates and I are all different and similar in many ways” (Asian American female, U.S. born). This theme corroborates our existing knowledge about the power of peers during the developmental period of adolescence (Brown & Larson, 2009) and suggests we should continue to design school-based interventions in a manner that leverages these important relationships.

A third theme involved students indicating that they enjoyed having the opportunity to talk about race, ethnicity, stereotypes, and discrimination. This was evidenced with responses such as “In class today we learned about stereotypes that people place upon others. I liked talking to my class about stereotypes. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone because we all have been stereotyped and have stereotyped someone or something” (Asian American female, U.S. born); “I like how we talk about race” (Latina female, non-U.S. born); “I liked opening up to my class about experiences where I thought that I was bing [sic] treated differently because of my ethnic/racial background. I also liked listening to my classmates experiences and understanding that I’m not alone” (Asian American female, U.S. born); “I liked that we learned about the actual science behind race and ethnicity and how different the actual facts are from society’s misconceptions” (White female, U.S. born); and “I liked learning that everyone is different and there isn’t one set skin color” (Black/African American female, U.S. born). The emergence of this theme was particularly important for providing direct evidence from youth that there is a desire and willingness to engage in conversations about race, ethnicity, and identity in school, which adults often shy away from due to the misconception that youth do not want to have these conversations because they are uncomfortable (Rivas-Drake & Umaña-Taylor, 2019).

A fourth theme that emerged indicated that students appreciated the opportunity the IP lessons provided for them to connect with their family. One student stated, “I liked the most about thinking about our families and how we all connect” (Latina female, U.S. born); another responded, “I like that I have to ask questions about people in my family and their ethnic/racial backgrounds as well as where they’re from” (Black/African American female, U.S. born); a third student reported, “the family map thing was interesting because we got to make something and also we held conversations with our families (or at least i did with my parents) that i otherwise wouldn’t have had” (White male trans guy, U.S. born); and another student shared, “I liked expanding my knowledge on my family. It’s important to know your background” (Asian American female, U.S. born). Given the significant role that families play in the process of ethnic-racial socialization and, in turn, ethnic-racial identity development (Umaña-Taylor & Hill, 2020), it was encouraging to find that this school-based curriculum that does not have an explicit or obligatory family engagement component was, nevertheless, engaging families and, at least for some students, contributing to making a school-home connection.

Finally, it was exciting to find students spontaneously mentioning appreciation for their teachers in response to a question asking them what they enjoyed most about their recent IP lesson. For instance, one student responded, “i liked that the teacher made us feel safe” (White female, U.S. born); a similar sentiment was shared by an Asian American female, U.S.-born student with the comment, “My teacher creates a safe space,” and another student stated, “I liked the way the teacher explained things” (Latino male, U.S. born). We originally anticipated that students would respond to this prompt with statements related to aspects of the curriculum, and the emergence of this unexpected theme served as an important reminder of the significant role that teachers play in students’ engagement with any curriculum and that teachers are influential socialization agents during the developmental period of adolescence (Wang & Eccles, 2012).

Overall, the preliminary themes emerging from the student daily diary check-in data support many of the design choices we made when developing the IP (see Umaña-Taylor & Douglass, 2017). For instance, we intentionally developed the curriculum to engage students in conversations with their peers because, during the development phase of our intervention, focus group data we gathered revealed that one of the ways adolescents believed they learned about their ethnic-racial identity was by learning about their peers’ ethnic-racial identity and experiences related to race and ethnicity. Thus, it was exciting to get this feedback from a different set of students, and essentially get confirmation that the design choices we made based on input from our initial adolescent participants during program development were resonating with adolescents participating in the implementation phase. Similarly, although many adults (educators, administrators, and parents alike) believe that students do not want to engage in conversations about race, ethnicity, ethnoracial stereotypes or discrimination in school because these topics make them feel uncomfortable, data from our focus groups during the development phase revealed that students believed it was important to talk about race, discrimination, stereotypes, and related topics. Thus, it was not surprising that one of the themes that emerged in our daily diary data focused explicitly on students appreciating the opportunity to talk about race, ethnicity, stereotypes, and discrimination. Not only do students want to have these conversations, when they are asked to select what they have enjoyed the most about an IP session, this is the topic they choose.

What Do Teachers Think About the IP?

As important as students’ perceptions are, we know that teachers will play a crucial role in whether or not a program will be successful. Their opinions matter and will influence whether any curriculum, no matter how theoretically grounded or evidence-based, fails or flourishes. Thus, we interviewed the four teachers who had implemented the IP curriculum with their students and asked for their perceptions of the curriculum. Because of the small sample size, and to preserve confidentiality and anonymity, I do not identify the gender or ethnic-racial background of the participants whose quotes are presented below; however, I will note that our sample included two White teachers (1 male, 1 female) and two teachers from ethnic-racial minoritized backgrounds (1 male, 1 female). We were particularly interested in their opinions regarding the potential value of the IP for their students. Teachers had a lot to share and our preliminary review of their responses led us to identify three common themes regarding their perceptions of the IP curriculum for their students: (1) ninth grade was an appropriate time for this curriculum, (2) the curriculum provided opportunities to build and strengthen student–teacher connections, and (3) the IP provided concrete ways for students to be able to “see themselves” in the curriculum.

First, teachers agreed that the focus on ninth-grade students was right on target because they felt that this was a particularly critical and sensitive time during students’ development and transition into high school, which made doing programs such as this particularly valuable for students. One teacher described the unique challenges ninth graders face as they transition to high school and how this curriculum helps to give them a necessary foundational understanding and language with which to discuss ethnic-racial identity:

As a ninth grader like, I think it lends itself to like a really good opener like you know, not necessarily just one day, but like a good opener for the school year because it’s a huge—it’s a huge change for kids. And they—I know that they’re not you know talking with their friends about like particulars of ethnic-racial identity, but they’re also not, not having these conversations with their families and their friends. And so just say, give them, like, I think in future years to continue to give them like the language, particularly the language and, like, some understanding of what that language means is really useful because you know, now with, with social media, like they’re just getting things everywhere.

A second teacher echoed this sentiment and focused even more specifically on the misconceptions that students have related to race-ethnicity, and how disrupting these misconceptions at this particular developmental transition is especially important:

I think that it’s really important because it disrupts stereotypes that kids walk around and have about each other, right? And it disrupts some of the, um . . . You know, you’re a teenager. You’re trying to figure out how you fit into this world and now all of a sudden you’re recognizing all these other outside factors that are weighing into who you are, as a person. Um, and I like the idea of at that exact moment where those differences are really becoming more palpable, um, not that they aren’t before but, I like the idea of disrupting that and I think that’s a really important part of our job.

Indeed, a response from a Latino male student (non-U.S.-born) to the daily diary check during the last week of implementation provides a student perspective to the very idea that this teacher is sharing. Specifically, when asked to report what he enjoyed most about this last IP session, the student shared,

I liked how everyone got to share and enjoy each other’s cultures and values. When you bring things in from your culture or background, sometimes you can’t help but ask yourself if people will think that what you bring is weird and they [sic] you are being judged because of it. But when you actually share things about your culture with others, you realize how much people care and enjoy learning and experiencing new things from each other’s cultures like foods and traditions. This is something that I really enjoyed about today and something I will keep in my mind whenever I want to share about my racial background and my culture.

Consistent with teachers’ perspectives and insights, ninth-grade students are in a unique developmental period in which they are increasingly self-conscious about all aspects of their identity, including their ethnic-racial identity. It is clear that, at least for this student, the experiences of sharing this aspect of himself with other students was a positive experience and one that has informed how he will feel about sharing his ethnic-racial identity with others in the future.

In addition to believing that ninth grade was an ideal time for intervention, teachers also shared the perspective that the IP curriculum provided an important opportunity to build and strengthen student-teacher connections. In describing how they felt student–teacher connections were being strengthened through the curriculum, one teacher described an example from the personal storyboard activity in which students bring in pictures or images that reflect important aspects of their ethnic-racial identity,

I do think, for ninth graders—and I said this before—especially in this moment of COVID, I really think that like starting the year with being like, “I want to see you. I want to see . . .’ the example I’m gonna share is like so many kids put baby pictures in. And just like walking around the room being like, whoa, that little baby is Valeria! Oh my God! Um, I think that was really great and that’s something that, you know, like that’s a connection that I think those kids really felt genuine. And it was genuine. And it is genuine.

A second teacher explained how their expression of vulnerability and honesty with their students helped students and teachers connect with one another,

I tried to be very honest with them. And I shared with them how I felt when, like, I told you, like, when I was doing the actual curriculum and I shared with them what was difficult for me, what I really liked, what I was frustrated by, to let them know, like, it’s okay for you to have those feelings too. Um, um, so I feel like it, it made me more competent at it and, hopefully, made the students feel a little more, like, relaxed and everything was acceptable and um, yeah, I think, I think it had a pretty positive impact.

A third teacher shared that they typically develop close relationships with their students, but that the IP enabled this connection to materialize more quickly and, as noted in the quote below, they believe the knowledge gained will be something they will continue to draw on throughout the school year:

I think it has led to a faster connection between students and I. And I think that it’s something that, like, even though we’re not doing the lessons anymore, some of the concepts, especially about, like, your family and, like, how you identify yourself, um . . . will continue to come up, whether it’s, like, in formal lessons or just casual conversations I have with kids.

Finally, teachers seemed to agree that the IP curriculum provided students with a concrete way to be able to see themselves in the curriculum, which some teachers felt was essential for their academic success and engagement. The quote below nicely captures this sentiment:

We give them like the hardest curriculum to see themselves in, which we are changing. Um, but I think it was really nice to break that up, or insert in there, some of this, like, uh, “I can see myself in this curriculum,” This teacher cares about me, “I am a part of this story.” And it’s not just like, “Yeah he’s giving me a lecture right now about, like, I don’t know, the science behind race.” But really it’s about me. It’s not just about this abstract concept. Um, and I’ve been thinking a lot about—especially out of this post-COVID moment how important that is. I was just reading this morning in the [local newspaper] about another, like, act of violence that happened at the [name of school] in [city]. And just how, um, kids are just so dysregulated, they don’t feel like they’re connected to adults. And it felt like this was a, this was a really nice place to make kids feel seen and connect, um, with adults in the classroom. I also was wondering, too, like . . . I think social studies will figure out a better way to teach and we are really good at seeing kids and having kids see themselves in the curriculum. I think this could be really interesting if, like, implemented in like a math class or like a science class, where the curriculum is a lot less something that kids can see themselves in. But you can still build that relationship with the teacher as like part of like, “hey we care about you, this is a part of what we do.”

A second teacher shared a similar perspective regarding how the IP curriculum enabled teachers to help students make connections between their own personal experiences and historical events they were covering in class:

. . . in general, kids are always like, you know, oh, history happens. It’s in the past blah blah. It’s boring, whatever. But again, like, taking that . . . the training and the knowledge from what we—we—we went through the curriculum together and just thinking like, okay, when we get to the Identity Project lesson, they’re going to have some historical events and connect to that, to themselves. How can I do that in my practice more than I already do?

Overall, teachers felt positively about the IP curriculum, believed that it covered important topics that were relevant and necessary to address with their ninth-grade students, and seemed to agree that, in addition to the benefits for students’ own ethnic-racial identity development, the curriculum could support strengthening student–teacher connections and providing additional opportunities for students to make personal connections with subject-matter specific course content.

Did Ethnic-Racial Identity Change When Teachers Implemented the Curriculum?

The qualitative data from students and teachers have provided insights into how students and teachers are perceiving the lessons and the potential benefits of the IP, respectively. However, another important question that we had been unable to answer until we conducted the MLMI project was: Does ethnic-racial identity change when teachers implement the IP? The initial efficacy testing of the IP, and all implementations since, had been carried out by trained researchers. The MLMI project was the first systematic implementation of the IP by a group of trained educators. Our findings suggest that the answer to this important question is “yes!” Specifically, findings from a repeated-measures t-test indicated that ethnic-racial identity exploration increased significantly from pre-test (M = 2.16, SD = .80) to post-test (M = 2.57, SD = .76); t(141) = –5.22, p < .001 (Umaña-Taylor, Sladek, & Safa, 2022). Cohen’s d was 0.53, reflecting a medium effect size. In comparison, when the intervention was delivered by researchers in the original efficacy testing (i.e., Umaña-Taylor, Douglass, et al., 2018), Cohen’s d was 0.17, when examining the mean change in exploration from pre-test to post-test for students who received the intervention, reflecting a small effect size. Thus, not only can teachers’ implementation of the IP curriculum lead to increases in students’ ethnic-racial identity exploration, but the impact of teachers on students may be even greater relative to when trained researchers implement the curriculum. This latter point is not surprising, given that teachers are more likely to have an established relationship with students than researchers and existing research has demonstrated the significant impact that teacher–student relationships can have on student outcomes (Crosnoe et al., 2004; Sterrett et al., 2011; Yu et al., 2018). Our next steps are to analyze waves 3 and 4 of our longitudinal data to fully test our theory of change with the MLMI data and examine whether increases in ethnic-racial identity exploration are associated with greater ethnic-racial identity resolution, higher global identity cohesion, and better psychological and academic adjustment, as we found in the original efficacy testing of the intervention. Of note, similar to findings from the original efficacy testing, we found no significant moderation by ethnic-racial majority/minoritized student background.

Future Directions and Considerations for a Global Theory of Change

Taken together, findings from the IP offer promising future directions for the fields of developmental psychology, education, and prevention. However, they also raise important questions for future research and application. One important future direction is to consider the potential for exponential gains if we leveraged the intersections of peers, family, and school. There is a substantial body of evidence demonstrating the importance of peers for adolescent development and adjustment (Brown & Larson, 2009), which is corroborated by our MLMI data from students indicating that learning about and connecting with their peers as they explored their own ethnic-racial identity was among the most enjoyable aspects of the IP curriculum. Furthermore, a plethora of studies (see Umaña-Taylor & Hill, 2020, for a review), together with our current and prior findings from the IP (e.g., Sladek et al., 2021), also point to the significant influence that familial socialization practices have on adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity development. Finally, although we are only in the beginning stages of understanding the important role teachers can play in this process, it is clear that the IP can provide an entry point for teachers to engage in culturally sustaining pedagogical practices (see Alim & Paris, 2017) and substantial evidence demonstrates that doing so is significantly associated with academic gains and positive adjustment particularly among youth from minoritized backgrounds (Bonilla et al., 2021; Byrd, 2016; Christiankis, 2011; Ladson-Billings, 2009; Rodriguez et al., 2004). Embedding the IP in school-based curricula, training teachers to engage in this work with their students, and incorporating an explicit family engagement component may lead to maximum program impact and should be experimentally examined in future research.

Another outstanding question, however, and one that is of particular importance as we consider a global developmental science, is whether a global theory of change regarding ethnic-racial identity is feasible. Theoretically, there is strong support for a global theory of change. Generally, developmental scholars (e.g., Erentaitė et al., 2018; Juang et al., 2022; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014) agree that identity development is a universal developmental task and that engaging in exploration and resolution of one’s multiple identity domains leads to a more integrated sense of self (i.e., global identity cohesion—operationalized as greater identity synthesis and less confusion; Rosenthal et al., 1981), which promotes positive psychosocial adjustment (Erikson, 1968). Moreover, there is some empirical support for a global theory of change of identity formation (e.g., Hatano & Sugimura, 2017; Luyckx et al., 2013). The question then becomes whether a global theory of change focused on ethnic-racial identity is feasible.

With respect to this question, notions from social psychological theories and Critical Race Theory offer compelling evidence for an affirmative response. For instance, self-categorization theory posits that in societies where inequities based on a particular social identity are pervasive, that particular social identity domain will be salient (Turner et al., 1987). Thus, it follows that in countries where factors such as race (i.e., phenotype), ethnicity, culture, religion, language, and/or migration status, as examples, play a role in the social stratification of that society (e.g., determine access to power and resources), social identities based on these sociocultural demographic characteristics will be salient. Furthermore, social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) helps us understand that, when young people are racially “othered” based on sociocultural characteristics such as ethnic or cultural heritage, nationality, language, religion, or migration status, these experiences inform how they view themselves, and their sense of worth and belonging in that society. Moreover, this racialization determines whether they are viewed as an ingroup or outgroup member, how they are treated and, perhaps most importantly, their access to power and resources in that particular sociohistorical context. These experiences, collectively, shape the identity development process of individuals in any given society.

Despite these theoretical connections, there is somewhat of a global narrative suggesting that issues of ethnic-racial marginalization (and by extension, ethnic-racial identity) are only relevant or salient within the context of the United States, perhaps due to the long and well-documented history of marginalizing and privileging individuals based on race in the United States. In fact, as I was preparing for a research sabbatical in Colombia, South America, in 2017, my plan to study adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity within the Colombian context was repeatedly met with confusion and well-intended discouragement. My Colombian colleagues were concerned that my efforts would not be fruitful—almost as if my sabbatical year would be wasted—because, in effect, I would find that issues of race and ethnicity were not relevant to young people in Colombia. In fact, what my qualitative and quantitative results from data gathered in Colombia revealed was that Colombian adolescents were well aware of race, ethnicity, and contemporary experiences (personal or vicarious) of ethnoracially based marginalization. Given the concerns, I proceeded to first gather qualitative data to explore whether these were salient issues for Colombian adolescents. The qualitative data revealed that issues of race and ethnicity were salient to adolescents and that they noticed and/or talked about these issues in multiple settings (e.g., with friends, in school, in their community, with family; Umaña-Taylor, Martinez-Fuentes et al., 2022). I then proceeded to gather quantitative data from a larger sample and results indicated that the extent to which Colombian adolescents had explored and resolved issues related to their ethnic-racial identity was positively associated with their sense of global identity cohesion and other indices of their psychosocial adjustment (Umaña-Taylor, Sladek, Safa, et al., 2022). I argue that ethnic-racial identity is a salient construct in the lives of the Colombian adolescents in this sample because of the country’s sociopolitical history in which individuals from minoritized backgrounds (i.e., indigenous, Afro-descendant) have been systematically disadvantaged in economic, social, and educational sectors (Preiss et al., 2015). Furthermore, a consequence of such socially constructed hierarchical structures based on race, ethnicity, phenotype, and indigeneity is that it makes categorization based on these sociocultural characteristics salient to those living in that society and, in turn, makes this a salient social identity that informs individuals’ self-concept (Umaña-Taylor, Sladek, Safa, et al., 2022).

Along these lines, the Social Construction Thesis, as presented in Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012), provides a useful framework for drawing parallels between the racialization of sociocultural groups in the United States and similar practices in other countries. The Social Construction Thesis suggests that “race and races are products of social thought and relations. Not objective, inherent, or fixed, they correspond to no biological or genetic reality; rather races are categories that society invents, manipulates, or retires when convenient” (p. 8, Delgado & Stefancic, 2012). I argue that similar processes are at play in countries around the globe in which people are categorized based on race, phenotype, ancestry, migration status, ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, or other sociocultural demographic characteristics—and, ultimately, this socially constructed categorization system corresponds to a social hierarchy in which some groups have more and other groups less access to power, resources, and unearned privileges. I refer to this as a racialization based on sociocultural demographic characteristics and argue that it mirrors processes that make race-ethnicity salient in the United States. Furthermore, I argue that this racialization, and in particular the othering of members of minoritized groups within this social hierarchy, is what makes ethnic-racial identity salient in these contexts across the globe.

Indeed, similar to what has been documented in the United States (e.g., Lewis et al., 2015; Neblett, 2019), there is ample evidence across the globe of the consequences of hierarchical social stratification systems based on factors such as ethnicity, religion, and migration status, with significant disparities in educational and health outcomes among members of marginalized groups (e.g., minoritized ethnicity, migrant status, and religious minorities) relative to those who are in the majority (e.g., Chavez-Dueñas et al., 2014; Perreira & Telles, 2014; Wheatley, 2007). Thus, I propose that when such racialization is a basic organizing feature of a given society such that membership in minoritized groups (or majoritized by comparison) determines group members’ access to power, privilege, and resources, ethnic-racial identity development becomes a relevant construct and an important developmental task for young people. Therefore, a global theory of change does seem theoretically feasible, but ultimately this remains an empirical question.

Toward this end, findings from my research in Colombia have provided some preliminary support (albeit with cross-sectional, non-experimental data) for this theory of change with data from adolescents in Colombia. Another exciting development is that adaptations and empirical examinations of the IP are currently underway in six European countries, and there is interest in expanding this to Latin American settings as well. The first team to explore the possibilities for adaptation was led by Dr. Linda Juang and her team at the University of Potsdam in Germany. With a relatively younger age group of seventh graders (i.e., 12–13 years of age), they found promising results regarding the intervention’s potential to impact students’ attitudes toward engaging across ethnoracial difference (Juang et al., 2021, 2022). Their work offers valuable insights into the ways in which we can consider the racialization of identities in different cultural contexts. The following excerpt (see p. 195, Juang et al., 2021) describing their conceptualization and adaptation of the construct ethnic-racial identity in the German context is particularly useful:

Because of the history of racially motivated genocide, developing an identity linked to race as a social construct as conceptualized in the U.S. context may not be tenable. Developing a racialized identity embedded in heritage culture, migration, and religion may be more likely. Because race and racism are still relevant yet not openly discussed, the adapted Identity Project required a modification in terminology as well as a re-centering of discussions around heritage, culture, and family instead of race and ethnicity.

We can also look to the cross-cultural adaptation process of the IP by scholars in Norway, Sweden, Italy, and Greece to expand our vision of the types of adaptations that are feasible in distinct cultural contexts, consider what aspects of the intervention can be universally applied, and identify what aspects require more of a deep structure adaptation to be applicable to the cultural context (see Juang et al., 2022). Generally, this transnational collaborative work has demonstrated that with careful attention to theory that takes into account the sociohistorical context, coupled with the intentional use of both emic and etic approaches to cross-cultural adaptation (Juang et al., 2022), it is possible to design and implement culturally relevant interventions guided by a common theory of change across countries that are characterized by vastly different sociohistorical contexts and yet share the experience of a socially constructed racialization of people according to sociocultural demographic characteristics. This preliminary work can serve as a heuristic for advancing independent, but related, programs of research that collectively promote and help to build a more global developmental science by identifying universally salient developmental assets.

A final note is that whereas the content of ethnic-racial identity is expected to be different across groups, and the processes of engaging in exploration and developing a sense of resolution or clarity regarding one’s ethnic-racial identity development are expected to be universal, this does not imply that trajectories of change in process domains will be universal within or across countries. In fact, existing research on ethnic-racial identity development in the United States has demonstrated variability in trajectories within ethnic-racial minoritized groups (see Douglass & Umaña-Taylor, 2015, for an example with U.S. Latino adolescents), just as different trajectories of change in the processes of identity formation have been documented in multiple countries (e.g., Japan—Hatano & Sugimura, 2017; Belgium—Luyckx et al., 2013; and the Netherlands—Meeus et al., 2012). Furthermore, given the context-dependent nature of identity formation and especially regarding social identities, as we build our global understanding of ethnic-racial identity formation across the globe, it will be important to pay attention to the prevalence of particular profiles and patterns of change overtime that may be more or less common in particular countries and consider how such patterns may correspond to societal demands and affordances in those contexts. Finally, as with all interventions, it will be important to continue to explore for whom and under what conditions the IP is most efficacious. For instance, findings from the U.S. implementation indicated that students whose families were engaging in the highest levels of familial ethnic socialization practices benefited the most from the program (Sladek et al., 2021), and findings from the Italian implementation indicated that the intervention was most efficacious for youth with relatively higher levels of environmental sensitivity (Ceccon et al., 2023). These contextual moderators will be important to explore and document within and across cultural adaptation sites to continue to build our understanding of the intervention’s potential.

Conclusion

In closing, in the interest of pursuing a more global developmental science, I propose that we continue to consider and explore the ways in which we might leverage existing understandings of ethnic-racial identity development and opportunities for school-based interventions in the United States (and now in several European countries) to advance theoretical and empirical understandings in other countries where individuals are categorized based on race, ethnicity, culture, religion, migration status, or other sociocultural demographics and members of minoritized groups within these categories are racially othered. Similarly, scholars studying adolescents in the United States should consider how theoretical and empirical advances made in other countries can inform work being conducted in the United States. Ultimately, we should all be questioning what aspects of theoretical conceptualizations are universal to human development and may be applicable across cultural contexts, particularly across contexts similarly characterized by hierarchical social structures organized according to socially constructed groups. I argue that, although the construct of ethnic-racial identity has been conceptualized and studied primarily in the United States, the racialization of groups based on phenotype, ethnic heritage, language, religion, and migration status—which is at the core of ethnic-racial identity development—is relevant in any nation in which individuals are categorized according to any or all of these sociocultural demographic characteristics.

Another important consideration as we further this work across the globe pertains to issues of intersectionality and how the IP, or similar curricula, can support discussions and students’ exploration of how their identities are shaped by the intersection of multiple social identities (e.g., ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status) that inform their day-to-day experiences and the ways they develop an understanding of who they are, how they see themselves, and how they are treated by others due to complex identity dynamics in a given society. The IP curriculum begins with a discussion of how multifaceted and complex our identities are, and there are a few opportunities throughout the curriculum for students to bring in experiences related to intersecting identities, but the curriculum is mostly focused on considering ethnic-racial identity. It will be useful for future implementations to consider how to integrate discussions of intersectionality and support students as they consider and explore the ways in which their multiple social identities intersect to inform their experiences and their general sense of self.

As I ended my keynote address in Rhodes, Greece, I posed an important question for the audience, and I pose this question here again: Is ethnic-racial identity relevant in your cultural context? I find the following points useful to consider when contemplating this question: Is there evidence of racialization as a function of race, phenotype, ethnicity, ancestry, culture, religion, migration status, documentation status, or other socially constructed demographic characteristics in your respective country? Is your country characterized by (1) pervasive subordination of minoritized groups in formal (e.g., legal) or informal (e.g., interpersonal) ways; (2) promotion of the perspectives and interests of members of the majority group across all parts “of social life in both implicit (e.g., different sentencing practices, gerrymandering) and explicit (e.g., alt-right, organized fascism) ways; and (3) hostility toward individuals, technologies, and social movements that threaten the assumed power and privilege” of those in the majority “and the institutions they control?” (p. 487, Grzanka et al., 2019). These reflection points were originally offered by Grzanka et al. (2019) as they described three consistent themes of global White supremacy. I have replaced the phrase “White people” in their original writing with “majority people” because that slight modification helps to clarify how this captures the social construction of racialization based on sociocultural demographic characteristics across different countries. Indeed, Grzanka et al. (2019) note that because race is a fundamental social construction, racial categories will shift and racism’s effects will differ across space, time, and global settings, but these common themes persist and awareness of them helps us recognize the forces of global White supremacy at play.

As an additional point to consider, Grzanka et al. (2019) explain that global White supremacy informs various social problems around the world that impact mental health and social justice, such as police brutality against Black people, the global war on terror, and laws against immigration (Grzanka et al., 2019). I see clear parallels between these ideas presented by Grzanka and colleagues and considerable evidence from across the globe documenting significant disparities in education and health outcomes as a function of these various sociocultural demographic characteristics. For instance, in Brazil, there is evidence of significant disadvantage in educational outcomes as a function of race (Marteleto, 2012); in Canada, there are significant differences in academic outcomes as a function of indigenous status (Barber & Jones, 2021); multiple analyses of PISA data demonstrate consistent educational disadvantage among students with a migrant relative to non-migrant background (Griga & Hadjar, 2014; Makarova & Birman, 2015); and in multiple countries in Latin America (e.g., Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, and Puerto Rico), both class and race consistently predict educational inequality (Telles et al., 2015). With respect to health, an abundance of studies conducted in countries around the world have provided overwhelming evidence demonstrating the prevalence of health disparities along the lines of race, ethnicity, and migration status (e.g., Bécares et al., 2015; Paradies et al., 2015; Perreira & Telles, 2014; Priest & Williams, 2018). Do these features of the social context resonate with lived experiences in your country? If so, perhaps ethnic-racial identity development will be a relevant construct in your cultural context.

In sum, the results from our work suggest that a focus on ethnic-racial identity formation in developmental prevention science may be a key lever to activate to promote positive youth development in cultural contexts in which marginalization on the basis of sociocultural identities is prevalent. Furthermore, the IP school-based curriculum is one example of the type of intervention that can be implemented among diverse groups of young people. As we consider a more global developmental science, and we engage in the challenging work of considering how young people’s identities are developing and evolving in a context of racialization in which some groups are marginalized and others are privileged, we will benefit from doing the hard work of identifying ways to intervene with young people from both of these groups because, as noted by Helms (1994) almost three decades ago, social change will require members from the majority and minoritized groups to understand and resolve the sociopolitical issues associated with their respective group’s status. Existing evidence of ethnoracial marginalization and racialized othering in countries across the world indicate that an important next step in this area of inquiry will be to begin to test a global theory of change and explore the potential benefits of implementing programs such as the IP in other cultural contexts.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the students, teachers, and school administrators who participated in these studies and made this work possible. She is also grateful to many colleagues who supported the various projects described in this paper, including students, research staff, and faculty collaborators from the Latino Resilience Enterprise at Arizona State University, the Psychology Department at Universidad de San Buenaventura in Medellín, Colombia, and the AERID Lab at Harvard University. Finally, she thanks the Editor and two anonymous reviewers who provided valuable recommendations for revision during the review process.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported, in part, by awards from the William T. Grant Foundation (grant no. 189853) and the National Science Foundation (grant nos. 1911722 and 1911398). Any opinion, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the funding agencies.

ORCID iD

Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor

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