VARIATIONS IN BICULTURAL IDENTIFICATION AMONG AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND MEXICAN-AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS

To identify the ways in which minority adolescents deal with being par t of two cultures, we studied 46 middle- and working-class Mexican Ame rican and 52 middle-class African American students from ethnically di verse high schools in Southern California. Participants were interview ed about their sense of being ethnic, American, and bicultural, and th ey also completed questionnaire measures of ethnic identity, American identity, other-group attitudes, self-concept, and anxiety. Qualitativ e analysis of the interviews revealed three types of identification pa tterns: blended biculturals, alternating biculturals, and separated ad olescents. Scores on American identity and other-group attitudes diffe red significantly among the identification patterns. Ethnic and Americ an identity were generally uncorrelated, supporting the multidimension al (vs. linear) view of being bicultural. The results illustrate the v aried types of identification manifested by ethnic minority adolescent s in relation to their two reference groups, ethnic and American.