This study used a narrative approach to understand how emerging adults experience ethnicity in their everyday lives and to link ethnic identity processes with the content of how ethnic identity is experienced. Participants were 191 ethnically diverse emerging adults who completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) and provided a written narrative about a time at which they became aware of their ethnicity. Participants' narratives differed significantly by ethnic group and by ethnic identity status membership, as indexed by the MEIM. The results underscore the value of adopting a narrative approach to understanding the content of ethnic identity and the links between content and ethnic identity development processes.

The goals of this study were to examine trajectories of change in ethnic identity during the college years and to explore group-level and individual-level variations. Participants were 175 diverse college students who completed indices of ethnic identity exploration and commitment, self-esteem, and domain-general identity resolution. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that exploration and commitment continued to increase during the college years. Although there were ethnic differences in initial levels of ethnic identity, the rate of change did not vary by ethnicity. Domain-general identity was positively associated with exploration and commitment and mediated the association between self-esteem and commitment. The findings highlight the ongoing development of ethnic identity beyond adolescence and suggest that ethnic identity is part of the larger identity project.

AhstractThis study investigated the significance of friendship for scientific reasoning. We had two main goals: First, assess whether collaborations between friends fostered greater development of scientific reasoning than collaborations between acquaintances, and second, identify which features of friends' collaborative dialogues mediated their greater problem solving accuracy. Fifth graders collaborated on isolation of variables problems of varying difficulty with either a friend or an acquaintance. The results showed that adolescents paired with friends obtained higher problem solving accuracy than adolescents paired with acquaintances during both the collaborative and the posttest sessions. However, the cognitive advantages of working with a friend were only evident in the most difficult isolation of variables problems. Analyses of friends' and acquaintances' dialogues showed that friends were more likely than acquaintances to evaluate their solutions, justify their proposals spontaneously, elaborate and critique each other's reasoning, and engage in transactive discussions. Fvaluating outcomes and participating in transactive conflicts were significantly associated with better problem solving, and consequently these may be the two key mechanisms through which friendship effects developmental changes in scientific reasoning. The results are discussed in terms of the need to understand developmental features of relationships and how these features mediate cognitive development and the need to take a longitudinal approach to the study of the relation between transactive dialogues and the development of"scientific reasoning.

Identity is a central focus of research in the social sciences, national and international politics, and everyday discourse. This volume brings together an interdisciplinary set of social scientists who study personal and social identity. The chapters span childhood through emerging adulthood. This chapter introduces the three goals of the volume: (1) illustrating how the study of identity development is enriched by an interdisciplinary approach, (2) providing a rich developmental picture of personal and social identity development, and (3) examining the intersections of multiple identities. We illustrate these three goals with brief descriptions of how they are addressed in the other chapters in the volume. This chapter also highlights the three goals of the study with data from our ongoing longitudinal study of diverse emerging adults' college pathways.

The purpose in this longitudinal study was to investigate further the link between ethnic identity processes and content through an examination of emerging adults' narratives of ethnicity-related experiences. Seventy ethnically diverse college students completed an ethnic identity exploration index and told an ethnicity-related narrative on 2 occasions 18 months apart. Results indicated that (a) participants who increased in exploration over time were more likely to change their narrative theme than participants who decreased or remained stable in exploration and (b) these changes were more likely to be to stories of experience of prejudice or connection to culture. This study highlights the costs and benefits of ethnic identity and provides evidence for a linkage between ethnic identity process and content in emerging adulthood.