The Role of Ethnic Identity in Interventions to Promote Positive Adolescent Development

This paper addresses the role of ethnic identity in child development. We report on two school-based interventions with a focus on strengthening the ethnic identity of girls, one with a Hispanic population and one with an African American population. We also report on a study investigating whether parental ethnic identity plays a mediating role in African American parenting styles. The results of each study were non-significant in relation to their specific hypotheses regarding ethnic identity. We discuss the implications of these non-significant findings, particularly given that the two interventions were conducted in minority-majority communities.