Role of Perspective-Taking Abilities and Ethnic Socialization in Development of Adolescent Ethnic Identity

In this article, we report on an investigation of a recently proposed construct of ethnic perspective-taking ability (EPTA). It was hypothesized that: (a) EPTA would be related to ethnic identity, social perspective-taking ability (SPTA), and ethnic socialization; and (b) there would be distinctiveness in EPTA relative to SPTA. Mexican American high school students (N = 43) were administered in-depth EPTA and SPTA interviews and questionnaire measures of ethnic identity. Parents of the adolescents were administered an ethnic socialization questionnaire. Results provided support for the potential usefulness of EPTA because it was significantly associated with SPTA, even after variance associated with developmental level was controlled, and there was variance in ethnic identity predicted by EPTA that was not also predicted by either SPTA or the ethnic socialization variable. Contrary to expectation, EPTA was not significantly associated with ethnic socialization. However, parental ethnic socialization was significantly predictive of ethnic identity development. The results support a model of ethnic identity development during adolescence integrated across socialization and cognitive-developmental factors.