Identity Development in Biracial Children

Demographic and Social Trends

With minority group populations growing approximately 12 times faster than the White population, the United States is becoming increasingly racially diverse. At the same time, the population of biracial people is on the rise. The U.S. Census Bureau acknowledged the increasingly mixed heritage of the country when it added the option to select more than one racial category to the main survey instrument of the 2000 Census. This addition was a huge step forward for a country that traditionally followed the “one drop rule,” wherein if an individual had one African American ancestor, she would be identified as Black. Recent Census data show that 6.8 million Americans (2.4%) identified as belonging to two or more races. Some advocates estimate that the actual percentages are higher, citing the historical mixed racial heritage of African Americans in this country and suggesting that some mixed-raced individuals identify with only one group.

Biracial Identity and the History of Race Relations in the United States

Because of the nature and history of race relations in the United States, including slavery, antimiscegenation laws, and Jim Crow policies barring marriage and sexual relations between African Americans and European Americans, children from these unions have historically been stigmatized. They have been referred to as tragic mulattoes, mongrels, and quadroons, among the kinder labels.

As biracial people become more common, increasingly the image of the “tragic mulattoes” is put to rest. The stereotype of a biracial child or adult who simply does not feel as though she belongs anywhere in society is a common perception perpetuated by books such as the Quadroons, High Yellow, and Passing, and movies such as Imitation of Life, Pinky, and Showboat. While the plots differed somewhat, the results were the same: a mixed-race individual (often a woman) [Page 561]who did not fit into either the Black or the White world and paid dearly for the sins of her parents.

Biracial Children's Development

There is no indication in the research that biracial children are unusually unhappy or maladjusted. Early studies did suggest negative social and psychological consequences of having parents of different racial/ethnic backgrounds. But many researchers suggest that these early studies were tainted by racist and antimiscegenationist attitudes. More recent studies show biracial children with levels of self-confidence, creativity, and positive development found in typically developing monoracial children. These positive findings are particularly present when biracial children have a strong social network and a supportive family and attend integrated schools (Gillem, Cohn, & Throne, 2001).