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This study provides insights on issues related to the quantity and quality of children's picturebooks on multiracial Asian American (MAA) children and how to support their racial identity development and wellness.
Multiracial Asian American Children and Their Racial Identity in Early Childhood
This study aims to understand how multiracial Asian American children are portrayed and illustrated in children's picturebooks, with a special focus on their racial identity development. Multiracial individuals are those whose parents are from two or more distinct racial groups (Reynolds, 2009; Viager, 2011). In this study, the descriptor "Asian" is used when referring to East, Southeast, and South Asians. Thus, a multiracial Asian American (hereafter MAA) is defined in this study as an individual with one Asian or Asian American parent and one parent whose racial background is not Asian or Asian American.
Developing one's racial identity is one of the most important tasks in the early years of one's life. Racial identity refers to the attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs that an individual has about his or her racial group in relation to the majority racial group (Arroyo & Zigler, 1991).
Developing racial identity can be complex and challenging, especially for multiracial individuals (Oikawa & Yoshida, 2007; Schlabach, 2013). Quite a few MAAs have described their experiences of "social ostracism," alienation, and marginalization; these individuals generally feel "cultural[ly] homeless" because they do not feel as though they belong to a community (Vivero & Jenkins, 1999). Today, there are mixed views on the development of multiracial individuals. On the one hand, multiracial children are believed to be more prone to developing social and emotional vulnerabilities, such as depression, social withdrawal symptoms, low self-esteem, difficulty dealing with conflicting cultural demands, ambiguous cultural/racial identity, and marginalization in two or more cultures (Pearce-Morris & King, 2011). Conversely, recent research has shown that multiracial children do not differ from monoracial children in terms of self-esteem, self-comfort, or history of psychiatric problems (Shih & Sanchez, 2009). Moreover, they tend to be resilient high achievers with a strong sense of self and tolerance for diversity (Shih et al., 2007; Shih & Sanchez, 2005).
As children develop their self-identity, their personal identity is constructed through relationships with others and the environment (Woodhead, 2008). Scholars have found several factors that...