Description:
<p>The ethnic identity of mixed-heritage individuals may have important implications for the future of minority groups in the United States. Both assimilationists and pluralists believe mixed-heritage individuals are most likely to adopt a single ethnic identity. To address this question, the antecedents of individual-level ethnic identity were investigated in two samples of mixed-heritage college students, part-Japanese Americans in Hawaii and part-Hispanics in the Southwest. Seventy-three percent of the part-Japanese and 44% of the part-Hispanics listed a multiple identity on at least one measure of ethnic identity, which suggests that our ethnic boundaries may be eroding through intermarriage. In addition, the antecedents of the identity of these mixed-heritage individuals were investigated.</p>