Understanding the Identities of Mixed-Race College Students Through a Developmental Ecology Lens

The identity development of mixed race college students, those students whose parents are from more than one federally designated racial or ethnic category, does not appear to follow the path outlined in traditional models of racial identity development (e.g., Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1979; Atkinson & Sue, 1993; Cross, 1987, 1995; Helms, 1990, 1995). The models’ inclusion of a stage or status of immersion in minority culture and rejection of majority culture does not reflect the experience of many multiracial individuals (Poston, 1990; Root, 1996). Even ethnic identity models (e.g., Phinney, 1990) fail to capture the complexity of multiracial identity. The experience of falling outside the monoracial norm assumed in the United States prompts many individuals of mixed heritage to question the validity of racial categories and the necessity of rigid identification within existing categorization schema (Kilson, 2001; Renn, 2000; Root; Wallace, 2001). Indeed, mixed race college students may identify differently depending on campus sociocultural contexts