Abstract
As the population of individuals from different ethnic and/or racial backgrounds in North America continues to grow, scholars have turned their attention to the unique benefits and challenges that characterize multiethnic-racial experiences and how these experiences are related to well-being. This scholarship forwards comprehensive findings about parental socialization of multiethnic-racial identity, such as how parents teach their children about race and ethnicity. However, the mosaic of communication that facilitates the cultivation of secure multiethnic-racial identity within multiethnic-racial families is still ripe for exploration. In the current study, we build on previous scholarship to continue investigations of the connection between malleable identity (i.e., the extent to which multiethnic-racial individuals shift between their multiple ethnic-racial identities) and psychosocial well-being. Further, we investigate the role of parental identity accommodation (i.e., the manner in which parents recognize and affirm a child’s multiethnic-racial) as a crucial parental socialization practice within these families also connected to well-being. Based on surveys from multiethnic-racial adults (N = 254), findings suggest that the association between malleable identity and dimensions of psychosocial wellbeing (i.e., self-esteem, life satisfaction, satisfaction with physical appearance, secure ethnic-racial identity) is relatively small. However, parental identity accommodation emerged as a significant predictor of these psychosocial outcomes. Interactions between malleable identity and parental identity accommodation in predicting the outcomes were also explored with no significant moderation effects. Implications, limitations, and opportunities for future research are discussed.