Multiracial individuals’ experiences of rejection and acceptance from different racial groups and implications for life satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Two studies examine Multiracial Asian-White, Black-White, Latinx-White, and Native American-White people’s experiences of rejection (Study 1) and acceptance (Study 2) from potential racial ingroups, and associations with life satisfaction. In Study 1, Multiracial participants reported comparable levels of rejection from their monoracial minoritized ingroups and White ingroup, but significantly less rejection from their Multiracial ingroup. In Study 2, participants reported feeling slightly less accepted from monoracial minoritized ingroups than from the White ingroup. Across both studies, greater rejection, and less acceptance, from the White ingroup was related to lower life satisfaction. Notably, this effect was strongest among Native American-White Multiracial people relative to other Multiracial groups in our sample. Findings highlight how Multiracial people’s multiple potential ingroups relate to their social rejection and acceptance experiences, and that rejection and acceptance from higher status potential ingroups (i.e., White people) may play a role in subjective well-being disparities for some Multiracial groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Multiracial
• social rejection
• ingroup
• life satisfaction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/a5mzt/.

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/a5mzt/.

Notes

1. We use the term monoracial to refer to individuals who have only one racial background and Multiracial as an inclusive term for any person who has mixed-race ancestry (i.e., a racial background that includes two or more racial groups). Although we only examined participants with two self-reported racial backgrounds in our studies, we chose to use the more inclusive term throughout this paper rather than Biracial, which may reinforce geneticized perceptions of race (Richeson & Sommers, 2016). Across our studies, we used an unrestrictive definition of Multiracial status and considered a participant to be Multiracial and eligible if they self-selected two racial groups as part of their racial ancestry. Given that Multiracial people are more likely to change their identity than keep it the same, using ancestry provides a more stable marker of Multiracial status than relying on identity alone (Doyle & Kao, 2007).

2. Although we refer to different sources of acceptance and rejection as potential ingroup members, it is important to note that we did not assess the extent to which Multiracial individuals considered these groups to be part of their ingroup. Thus, we are not making claims of whether participants indeed considered these groups to be their racial ingroup. Rather, we use the term ingroup as an indicator of shared racial background. Further, Latinx is intentionally used as a gender-neutral demographic category that includes any person of Latin American origin or descent. In line with research that indicates Latinx people perceive Latinx as a racial background (see S. Cheng & Lively, 2009; Gonzalez-Barrera & Lopez, 2015; Hitlin et al., 2007), our research qualifies Latinx as a race and includes individuals who are Latinx and some other racial background.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Jasmine B. Norman

Jasmine B. Norman is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her research investigates how group memberships affect social perception and intergroup relations.

Marisa G. Franco

Dr. Marisa G Franco (she/her/hers) is an assistant clinical professor at the University of Maryland and a psychologist who focuses on human connection. Read more about her work here: https://drmarisagfranco.com/

Jacqueline M. Chen

Jacqueline Chen is an Assistant Professor of Psychology. Her research examines how people’s racial and gender identities influence their perceptions and interactions with others. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from UC Santa Barbara.