The explorer's edge: Racial-ethnic identity exploration confers early adolescents of color with protection against racial-ethnic discrimination in a co-sibling control study

Juan Del Toro; Warren Christopher L. Aguiling; Junqiang Dai; Charissa S.L. Cheah; Qi Huang; Mohammad Hashim; Binhao Wu

doi:10.1093/chidev/aacaf048

The explorer's edge: Racial-ethnic identity exploration confers early adolescents of color with protection against racial-ethnic discrimination in a co-sibling control study

Juan Del Toro
, Warren Christopher L. Aguiling
, Junqiang Dai
, Charissa S.L. Cheah
, Qi Huang
, Mohammad Hashim
, Binhao Wu

Psychology (Twin Cities)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Racial-ethnic identity development may help adolescents cope with racial-ethnic discrimination. Exploration reflects efforts to understand one's racial-ethnic background, whereas commitment represents a sense of connection to one's racial-ethnic group. The present study investigated whether these identity components moderated associations between discrimination and psychopathology symptoms one year later among 1,184 adolescents of color (ages: 11–12; 52% female, 48% male; 35% Black, 36% Latino, 3% Asian, 26% Other youth of color; Waves 3–4: 2019–2022) nested within 656 families. In sibling fixed-effect models, adolescents reporting greater racial-ethnic identity exploration than their siblings showed weaker associations between discrimination and psychopathology symptoms. Racial-ethnic identity commitment did not moderate these associations. Findings underscore the developmental significance of identity exploration as a protective process during early adolescence.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	556-569
Number of pages	14
Journal	Child development
Volume	97
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacaf048
State	Published - Mar 1 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Keywords

psychopathology symptoms
racial-ethnic discrimination
racial-ethnic identity development

Publisher link

10.1093/chidev/aacaf048

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The explorer's edge: Racial-ethnic identity exploration confers early adolescents of color with protection against racial-ethnic discrimination in a co-sibling control study. / Del Toro, Juan; Aguiling, Warren Christopher L.; Dai, Junqiang et al.
In: Child development, Vol. 97, No. 2, 01.03.2026, p. 556-569.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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abstract = "Racial-ethnic identity development may help adolescents cope with racial-ethnic discrimination. Exploration reflects efforts to understand one's racial-ethnic background, whereas commitment represents a sense of connection to one's racial-ethnic group. The present study investigated whether these identity components moderated associations between discrimination and psychopathology symptoms one year later among 1,184 adolescents of color (ages: 11{\textendash}12; 52\% female, 48\% male; 35\% Black, 36\% Latino, 3\% Asian, 26\% Other youth of color; Waves 3{\textendash}4: 2019{\textendash}2022) nested within 656 families. In sibling fixed-effect models, adolescents reporting greater racial-ethnic identity exploration than their siblings showed weaker associations between discrimination and psychopathology symptoms. Racial-ethnic identity commitment did not moderate these associations. Findings underscore the developmental significance of identity exploration as a protective process during early adolescence.",

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The explorer's edge: Racial-ethnic identity exploration confers early adolescents of color with protection against racial-ethnic discrimination in a co-sibling control study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

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