Racial Self-Categorization in Adolescence: Multiracial Development and Social Pathways Steven Hitlin University of Iowa J. Scott Brown Miami University Glen H. Elder, Jr. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Research on multiracial individuals is often cross-sectional, obscuring the fluid nature of multiracial self- categorization across time. Pathways of racial self-identification are developed from a nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 14 – 18, measured again 5 years later. A significant proportion of multiracial ado- lescents change racial self-identification across time. Youth who ever report being multiracial are 4 times as likely to switch self-identification as to report consistent multiracial identities. Across this time, more multiracial adolescents either add a racial category (diversify) or subtract one (consolidate) than maintain consistent multiracial self-categorization. Exploratory multinomial analyses show few differences between these pathways on select psychological and social characteristics. Results lend quantitative support to qualitative studies indicating the fluidity of racial self-categorization. For a majority of American adolescents, selecting one’s racial category is not problematic. But this does not apply to a growing proportion born to multira- cial households. Their racial self-categorization is not straightforward. Racial fluidity has been discussed in both theoretical and qualitative work (e.g., Nagel, 1994; Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002; Tatum, 2004; Xie & Goyette, 1997). Although ‘‘race’’ is not a fixed, achieved entity, quantitative models of racial iden- tification tend to assume, and thus overstate, the stability of a person’s racial status. A lack of longi- tudinal studies on racial self-categorization has pro- duced a disjuncture between developmental theory and quantitative evidence. This disjuncture and the increase in immigration and interracial relationships over the past 3 decades (Lee & Bean, 2004) under- scores the importance of longitudinal research on multiracial self-identifications. This study investigates the prevalence and change of multiracial self-identification across the transition to young adulthood. With data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we in- vestigate the underexplored nature of developmen- tal change and stability in racial self-identification as measured by forced-choice questions. We hypothe- size that multiracial adolescents are likely to display considerable fluidity in their racial self-categoriza- tion choices as they move across this stage in the life course. The number of multiracial individuals in the United States is increasing (Harris & Thomas, 2002). In the 2000 Census, 2.4% of the population (6.8 mil- lion people) reported more than one race. Interest in multiracial children has flourished in recent years owing to their increasing number as well as racial measurement changes in the Census. Most multira- cials are younger adults and adolescents (Harris & Sim, 2002; Tafoya, Johnson, & Hill, 2004), the period in the life course where the development of racial r 2006 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2006/7705-0013 We thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project de- signed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a Grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with coop- erative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth/contract.html). This research has been supported by National Institute on Aging training Grant T32 AG00155 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Support was also provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32-HD007376, Human De- velopment: Interdisciplinary Research Training) at the Center for Developmental Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Steven Hitlin, Department of Sociology, University of Iowa, W140 Seashore Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242. Electronic mail may be sent to steven-hitlin@uiowa.edu. Child Development, September/October 2006, Volume 77, Number 5, Pages 1298 – 1308