Racial Identity and Academic Performance: An Examination of Biracial Asian and African American Youth |
Journal of Asian American Studies
Volume 2, Number 3 (October 1999)
pages 223-249
E-ISSN: 1096-8598 Print ISSN: 1097-2129
DOI: 10.1353/jaas.1999.0023
Grace Kao, Professor of Sociology, Education, and Asian American Studies
University of Pennsylvania
In the last three decades since the last anti-miscegenation laws were repealed, the United States has witnessed an increase in the number of multiracial persons, prompting a growing awareness of multiracial families. The U.S. Census recently considered whether to add a multiracial category to the 2000 Census. Despite growing interest in the biracial population, there is little research on their psychological and socioeconomic outcomes. Does biracial status confer a relative disadvantage in psychological adaptation as early theorists warned? In turn, do biracials benefit in their socioeconomic outcomes relative to their ethnic counterparts? Using a nationally representative data set of youth (the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988), this article examines whether biracial youths encounter greater psychological difficulties as previous theorists suggest. I also examine whether the school outcomes of biracials more closely resemble that of their minority or white counterparts.
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Tags: Grace Kao, Journal of Asian American Studies