The Role of Ethnic-Racial and National Identities on US Latino Adolescents' Global Identity Coherence and Adjustment

Objectives: Ethnic-racial minoritized adolescents are tasked with concurrently developing and balancing their ethnic-racial and national identities. The present study investigated the extent to which these two social identities were simultaneously associated with U.S. Latino adolescents' psychological adjustment via their associations with global identity coherence. Method: This cross-sectional study included 370 self-identified Latino middle-to-late adolescents (M (age) = 16.14 years; SD = 1.12; range: 14-18; 52.8% female; 96.2% U.S.-born; 50% had at least one foreign-born parent) who completed paper surveys in class. Structural equation path analyses with bias-corrected bootstrapping were conducted to test a theoretical mediational model of identity and adjustment. Results: Findings indicated that each social identity component explained significant variance in adolescent psychological adjustment (i.e., lower depressive symptoms; higher life satisfaction and self-esteem) via its unique association with identity coherence (i.e., synthesis and confusion). Results generalized across adolescent gender but were qualified by family immigrant status (i.e., having no foreign-born parent vs. having at least one foreign-born parent). Additionally, there was no support for an alternate model with the order of predictors and mediators reversed. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of multifaceted, multicomponent social identity development and exemplifies ways in which social position factors may set adolescents onto different developmental pathways. Public Significance Statement Developing a clear understanding and positive feelings about one's heritage or ethnic-racial background and having a sense of connection to the country in which one resides may foster adolescent psychological adjustment by promoting a cohesive general sense of self. It is important, therefore, to support ethnic-racial minoritized adolescents' efforts to learn about their heritage background and simultaneously consider their sense of belonging to the nation in which they reside, as these youth are increasingly tasked with developing identities and competencies to successfully manage demands associated with these group memberships in multicultural societies across the world.