Doctoral Dissertation Research: Situating Multiethnic Racial Identity in Neighborhood and Household Contexts

在美国城市地区，不同种族出身的拉丁美洲人和非拉丁美洲白人之间的多种族和混合种族家庭伙伴关系变得越来越普遍，但研究人员对这些家庭的人口和地理发生率几乎一无所知。 社会科学家对多民族、混合种族的家庭如何理解和制定种族和民族身份，或者他们如何选择和与他们的住宅社区互动知之甚少。 关于“住在哪里？“是混血家庭面临的最重要的问题之一，因为他们必须从一系列通常以单一种族类别标记的社区中选择居住地点。 社区塑造潜在的社会互动，从而影响种族和民族身份的形成和制定在混血家庭。 这篇博士论文的研究项目将探讨一种类型的混血家庭，夫妇，包括一个非拉丁裔白色（以下简称“白色”）和墨西哥遗产的拉丁裔（以下简称“墨西哥”）在一个大都会，洛杉矶大都市区。 博士生将研究家庭和家庭成员的种族和民族身份形成过程与家庭和邻里环境的多标量相互作用。 这项研究将采用严格的表格和地图的定量分析地理上详细的机密人口普查数据与定性分析的住宅历史访谈与墨西哥母亲和成年多种族儿童从白人墨西哥（WM）家庭。 该项目将（1）研究西部地区家庭相对于其他洛杉矶地区的居住分布情况。地区家庭和表征种族识别的多种族儿童在WM家庭相对于家庭人口结构和邻里种族组成，（2）评估WM家庭层面的看法和住宅决定有关的种族和民族社会化的儿童，以及（3）评估WM家庭和邻里环境对WM多种族之间种族和民族认同形成和表达的双重影响这个项目将通过研究影响身份形成的多种社会环境（家庭和社区）中的两种来加强对种族和民族身份发展的理解。 这个项目设想的家庭作为一个上下文的社会环境，影响个人身份和集体身份的主张，谈判和制定的主观单位。 学术界基本上没有类似的分析，因为实质性的重点是个人而不是家庭。 更广泛的科学影响来自于该研究对WM家庭的关注;一种混合种族的家庭类型，比其他多民族和多种族的伙伴关系更常见，但也几乎被研究人员忽视。 WM家庭可能会保留双方合作伙伴的种族和民族身份和家庭的复杂的种族和民族身份的元素，可能会体现在家庭住宅的决定，是类似的，但相当不同的大多数同种族的白色或拉丁美洲家庭。 WM家庭可能不会被吸引到由任何一方的种族群体成员主导的住宅区。 这项研究将解决的方式与拉丁美洲的文化和种族身份融入和/或改变那些白色美国，并提供重要的经验信息，在大都市地区的混血家庭定居。 最后，作为由博士论文改进奖资助的研究，该项目的实施将有助于为有前途的年轻学者建立一个坚实的独立研究计划。

Multiethnic and mixed-race household partnerships between Latinos of varied racial origin and non-Latino Whites are becoming ever more common in U.S. urban areas, yet researchers know almost nothing about these households beyond their demographic and geographic rates of occurrence. Social scientists understand little about how multi-ethnic, mixed-race households comprehend and enact racial and ethnic identity or about how they select and interact with their residential neighborhoods. Decisions about "Where to Live?" rank among the most important issues that confront mixed-race families because they must select residential locations from among a set of neighborhoods that are typically marked in terms of single racial categories. Neighborhoods shape potential social interactions and thus influence the formation and enactment of ethnic and racial identities within mixed-race households. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine one type of mixed-race household, couples including a non-Latino White (hereafter referred to as "White") and a Latino of Mexican heritage (hereafter referred to as "Mexican") in one metropolis, the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The doctoral student will examine the multi-scalar interactions of family and family members' racial and ethnic identity formation processes with household and neighborhood contexts. The study will employ a rigorous combination of tabular and cartographic quantitative analysis of geographically detailed confidential census data with qualitative analysis of residential history interviews with Mexican mothers and adult multiracial children from White-Mexican (WM) households. The project will (1) examine the residential distribution of WM households relative to other L.A. area households and characterize the racial identification of multiracial children in WM households relative to household demographic structure and neighborhood racial composition, (2) assess WM family-level perceptions and residential decisions related to the racial and ethnic socialization of children, and (3) evaluate the dual impacts of WM household and neighborhood contexts on the formation and expression of racial and ethnic identity among WM multiracial offspring.This project will enhance understanding of racial and ethnic identity development by examining two of the multiple social settings (households and neighborhoods) that impact identity formation. This project conceives of the household as both a contextual social setting that affects individual identity and as a subjective unit of collective identity assertion, negotiation, and enactment. Similar analyses are largely absent in academia because of substantive foci upon individuals rather than households. Broader scientific impacts arise from the study's focus on WM households; a mixed-race household type that is far more common that other multiethnic and multiracial partnerships but that is also nearly ignored by researchers. WM households might retain elements of both partners' racial and ethnic identifications and the household's complex racial, and ethnic identity might manifest itself in family residential decisions that are similar to but quite distinct from those of most same-race White or Latino households. WM households might not gravitate towards residential neighborhoods that are dominated by members of either partner's racial group. This research will address the manner with which Latino cultures and racial identities blend into and/or alter those of White America and offer crucial empirical information about where mixed-race households settle within large metropolitan areas. Finally, as research funded by a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award, this implementation of this project will facilitate the establishment of a solid independent research program for a promising young scholar.