Multiple Selves, Multiple Worlds: Three Useful Strategies for Research with Ethnic Minority Youth on Identity, Relationships, and Opportunity Structures

A coherent picture of development among ethnic minority youth is missing in theories of normal adolescence in which maturity is portrayed in terms of increasing autonomy from parents and where identity development is described as a process of exploration among relatively unrestricted educational and career opportunities (Adams, Gullotta, & Montemayor, 1992). Such accounts omit the experiences of minority youth, who often have lifelong responsibilities to family members and who face racial, economic, and political barriers to opportunities in school and work (Grotevant & Cooper, 1988, 1998).