Nested, Place and Relational Multiple Social Identities among Latinx and White College Students in California, USA

Abstract

Aim
The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationships of nested concentrically enlarged social identities of family (most proximal), neighborhood, cognitive-ethnic, affective-ethnic, state (California), national (American), and global-human (most distal) identities among a diverse group of American undergraduate college students in California, as well as within groups of self-designated Latinx (instead of Latino/a to replace gender notation) and White students.
Method
Participants were 256 ethnically diverse college undergraduate students in a long-established non-profit private university in California (179 women and 77 men). Each social identity was measured using established scales that showed good internal consistencies for the current sample with Cronbach alphas ranging from 0.75 to 0.89.
Results
The results showed that in the overall sample, the relative strength (rank) of the social identities going from most proximal (strongest) to the most distal (weakest) are as follows: Family, national (American), cognitive-ethnic, State (California), global-human, affective-ethnic, and neighborhood. The rankings (relative strength) based on the mean identity scores were somewhat different for Latinx and White samples but significantly correlated. Also, for the Latinx sample family identity and ethnic identity appear to have both relational and place attributes. For the White sample, family and global-human identities were polarized.

Conclusion

The findings suggest the complexity of the ways nested identities may be related rather than being related in a concentrically linear fashion, and may be different for different groups and collectives.