User:Trterp/sandbox

Factors
Parental Influence:

Outside actors' perceptions of biracial youth's parents can prove to be a systemic advantage for them at times. In a longitudinal study following students from Kindergarten through 8th grade, it was found that Biracial students with white mothers socially benefited from enhanced perceptions of performance when the teacher was also a white woman. Davis, T. M. (2016). This could have effects from better grades, less punishment, and improved confidence. The article describes these youth as having access to social capital via their mother's whiteness. While this study does struggle to control for a significant number of factors, they are able to demonstrate that biracial students can be perceived and engaged with differently based on their parents' race; potentially gaining an advantage compared to their monoracial minority peers that they are themselves potentially unaware of. Further research could examine how this observed discrepancy in perception of biracial students affects how the student identifies themselves.

Parent's engagement with their children can influence mental health and social outcomes in multiracial children as compared to their mono-racial counterparts. Biracial Youth report feeling less connected with and less supported by their mothers when compared with mono-racial counterparts. Lorenzo-Blanco, E. I., Bares, C. B., & Delva, J. (2013). This study also noted that multiracial children reported stronger connections to their fathers compared to their monoracial peers. It is important to note that the researchers reported sample size and statistical power as possibly accounting for both of these findings.

Social Interactions:

Multiracial individuals are often asked about their race or mislabeled. One study demonstrated that Multiracial students engage in more discussions on diverse topics. Whether out of necessity or other factors biracial students on college campuses consistently engage in more discussions about diversity than their mono-racial peers. Biracial students from varying heritages and cultural backgrounds all reported engaging in more discussions regarding diversity and race than a group of their monoracial peers. Future research could focus on why there is such a difference in this type of engagement between biracial and monoracial individuals. This discussion could be formed purely out of necessity from the frequency of questions about race or mislabeling levied at multiracial individuals. It could also potentially come from a place of comfort. As multiracial individuals are consistently made aware of their vague position within the current cultural narratives involving race, comfort around the topic could have been built up, leading to more readiness to discuss diversity and race topics.

Access to Services:

Multiracial students can find it difficult to find programs equipped to deal with the duality of their identity. A study by Johns Hopkins University Press found that biracial college students often found challenges when attempting to access college services related to race. Literte makes it clear that these programs do not intend to harm students. Instead they were created with specific racial groups in mind and, as a result, implicitly assume students are operating from a monoracial background. This, unfortunately, does not allow these types of services to be equipped to work with biracial students even if the student identifies as part of the racial group that the service is intended for.

Within this same study, biracial students reported feeling unwelcome or out of place at events thrown by racial specific groups as if it was not something that was for them. Biracial students who had experienced race-related family trauma from their youth also reported not utilizing these services or attending events as they felt that "they would not be understood". (Literte 2010, P.127). The very nature of racially defined programs puts biracial students in a position where they need to choose rather than embrace their duality; something that could potentially reinforce racial conflicts from their youth.

Parental Influence:

Outside actors' perceptions of biracial youth's parents can prove to be a systemic advantage for them at times. In a longitudinal study following students from Kindergarten through 8th grade, it was found that Biracial students with white mothers socially benefited from enhanced perceptions of performance when the teacher was also a white woman. Davis, T. M. (2016). This could have effects from better grades, less punishment, and improved confidence. The article describes these youth as having access to social capital via their mother's whiteness. While this study does struggle to control for a significant number of factors, they are able to demonstrate that biracial students can be perceived and engaged with differently based on their parents' race; potentially gaining an advantage compared to their monoracial peers. Further research could examine how this observed discrepancy in perception of biracial students affects how the student identifies themselves.

Parent's engagement with their children can influence mental health and social outcomes in multiracial children as compared to their mono-racial counterparts. Biracial Youth report feeling less connected with and less supported by their mothers when compared with mono-racial counterparts. Lorenzo-Blanco, E. I., Bares, C. B., & Delva, J. (2013). This study also noted that multiracial children reported stronger connections to their fathers compared to their monoracial peers. It is important to note that the researchers reported sample size and statistical power as possibly accounting for both of these findings.

Social Interactions:

Multiracial individuals are often asked about their race or mislabeled. One study demonstrated that Multiracial students engage in more discussions on diverse topics. Whether out of necessity or other factors biracial students on college campuses consistently engage in more discussions about diversity than their mono-racial peers. Biracial students from varying heritages and cultural backgrounds all reported engaging in more discussions regarding diversity and race than a group of their monoracial peers. Future research could focus on why there is such a difference in this type of engagement between biracial and monoracial individuals. This discussion could be formed purely out of necessity from the frequency of questions about race or mislabeling levied at multiracial individuals. It could also potentially come from a place of comfort. As Multiracial individuals are consistently made aware of their vague position within the current cultural narratives involving race, comfort around the topic could have been built up, leading to more readiness to discuss diversity and race topics.

Access to Services:

Multiracial student can find it difficult to find programs equipped to deal with the duality of their identity. A study by Johns Hopkins University Press found that biracial college students often found challenges when attempting to access college services related to race. Literte makes it clear that these programs do not intend to harm students. Instead they were created with specific racial groups in mind and as a result, implicitly assume students are operating from a monoracial background. This, unfortunately, does not allow these types of services to be equipt to work with biracial students even if the student identifies as part of the racial group that the service is intended for. Within this same study, biracial students reported feeling unwelcome or out of place at events thrown by racial specific groups as if it was not something that was for them. Biracial students who had experienced race-related family trauma from their youth also reported not utilizing these services or attending events as they felt that "they would not be understood". (Literte 2010, P.127). The very nature of racially defined programs puts biracial students in a position where they need to choose rather than embrace their duality; something that could potentially reinforce racial conflicts from their youth.