Family Functioning, Identity Commitments, and School Value among Ethnic Minority and Ethnic Majority Adolescents

Stefanos Mastrotheodoros; Jessie Hillekens; Marta Miklikowska; Benedetta Emanuela Palladino; Francesca Lionetti

doi:10.1007/s10964-024-01972-1

Family Functioning, Identity Commitments, and School Value among Ethnic Minority and Ethnic Majority Adolescents

Stefanos Mastrotheodoros^*, Jessie Hillekens, Marta Miklikowska, Benedetta Emanuela Palladino, Francesca Lionetti

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Ethnic minority youth show worse school adjustment than their ethnic majority peers. Yet, it remains unclear whether this gap can be explained by differences in family functioning and consequent identity commitments. This study examined (1) whether family functioning relates to identity commitments over time and (2) whether identity commitments impact later school value (3) among minority and majority adolescents. Minority (N = 205, M_age = 16.25 years, 31.1% girls) and majority adolescents (N = 480, M_age = 15.73 years, 47.9% girls) participated in this preregistered three-wave longitudinal study (T1: March-April 2012; T2: October 2012; T3: March-April 2013). Dynamic Panel Models revealed that most within-person cross-lagged associations were not significant in the total sample. Yet, multigroup analyses revealed differences between groups: Stronger identity commitments related to lower school value among minority adolescents, but were unrelated to school value among majority adolescents over time. Additionally, higher school value increased identity commitments among minority youth, yet it decreased identity commitments among majority youth over time. The findings highlight the differential interplay between identity commitments and school adjustment for minority and majority adolescents, with important implications for their future life chances.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1323-1340
Number of pages	18
Journal	Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Volume	53
Issue number	6
Early online date	29 Mar 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-024-01972-1
Publication status	Published - Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

This article was conceived during the Early Researcher's Union (ERU) Open Science Writing Week 2021, an event supported by the European Association of Developmental Psychology (EADP). The authors would like to thank the EADP and the ERU for organizing that workshop, promoting international collaboration among young researchers. S.M. would like to thank the Alexandros Onassis Public Benefit Foundation for the financial support during part of the work leading to this manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation
European Association of Developmental Psychology
European Research Council	ERC-2017-CoG-773023 INTRANSITION
European Research Council
Vetenskapsrådet	2023-05833
Vetenskapsrådet

Keywords

Ethnic minority youth
Family functioning
Identity commitments
Identity development
School adjustment

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Family Functioning, Identity Commitments, and School Value among Ethnic Minority and Ethnic Majority Adolescents

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