Types of ethnic–racial identity belongingness predicting mental health and suicide ideation: Exploring racial and gender differences among Latine‐White and Black‐White Multiracial adolescents

Abstract

The current study examined whether three types of ethnic–racial identity (ERI) belongingness (i.e., minoritized identity belongingness, White identity belongingness, and Multiracial identity belongingness) were associated with anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation among Multiracial adolescents. We also explored race‐gender group differences between Latina‐White females, Latino‐White males, Black‐White females, and Black‐White males. Participants were 583 adolescents 13–17 years of age ( M  = 15.25, SD = 1.38). Findings indicated that youth had relatively high belongingness to their minoritized, White, and Multiracial identities, but there were significant mean differences among the race‐gender groups. Further, minoritized identity belongingness was associated with less depressive symptoms and suicide ideation among all youth, and less anxiety symptoms for all youth except Latino‐White males. Interestingly, Multiracial identity belongingness was associated with less anxiety symptoms for only Latino‐White males but was not significant for the other three race‐gender groups. Multiracial identity belongingness was also associated with less depressive symptoms for all youth but not associated with suicide ideation for any youth. White identity belongingness was not associated with outcomes across youth. Findings highlight the importance of focusing on nuances in ERI and impacts on Multiracial youths' mental health and suicide ideation, while also considering racial and gender group differences.