Sara Douglass Bayless

• Ph.D.
• Senior Researcher at OMNI Institute

Cultural‐ecological theories posit that ethnic‐racial identity (ERI) development is shaped by transactions between contexts of ethnic‐racial socialization, yet research considering intersections among multiple contexts is limited. In this study, Black, Latino, White, and Asian American adolescents (N = 98; Mage = 16.26, SD = 1.09; 55.1% female iden...

Despite growing awareness of the negative effects of ethnic-racial discrimination, we know a minimal amount about the frequency of these experiences among Latina/o youth. Utilizing three independent studies, we examined estimates of general discrimination and police discrimination among Latino/a youth living in the U.S. Southwest (total N = 1,066;...

Ethnic/racial self-labeling represents one’s knowledge of and preference for ethnic/racial group membership, which is related to, but distinguishable from, ethnic/racial identity. This study examined the development of ethnic/racial self-labeling over time by including the concept of elaboration among a diverse sample of 297 adolescents (Time 1 mea...

Background Afterschool programs (ASPs) in the United States have been implemented in low income neighborhoods to enable at-risk youth to access educational support services to increase academic skills. However, mixed findings about the ASPs positively affecting academic performance suggests a need for additional evaluative studies. Objective The cu...

Ethnic-racial identity formation represents a key developmental task that is especially salient during adolescence and has been associated with many indices of positive adjustment. The Identity Project intervention, which targeted ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution, was designed based on the theory that program-induced changes in eth...

The purpose of this study was to examine time-varying associations of parent-adolescent cultural conflict with depressive symptoms and grade point average (GPA) among Chinese Americans from ages 11-22. We pooled two independently collected longitudinal datasets (N = 760 at Wave 1) and used time-varying effect modeling (TVEM) to show that the freque...

The present study bridges the process and content perspectives of ethnic/racial identity (ERI) by examining the longitudinal links between identity process (i.e., exploration, commitment) and a component of identity content, salience. Data were drawn from a 4-wave longitudinal study of 405 ethnically/racially diverse adolescents (63% female) from 9...

Ethnic–racial identity (ERI) development and ethnic–racial discrimination are two salient experiences among adolescents in the United States. Despite growing awareness of the costs and benefits of these experiences individually, we know little about how they may influence one another. The current study examined competing hypotheses relating discrim...

Children's exposure to coparenting conflict has important implications for their developmental functioning, yet limited work has focused on such processes in families with diverse structures or ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds. This longitudinal study examined the processes by which Mexican-origin adolescent mothers' coparenting confli...

Adolescents’ ethnic–racial identity (ERI) formation represents an important developmental process that is associated with adjustment. The Identity Project intervention, grounded in developmental theory, was designed to engage adolescents in the ERI processes of exploration and resolution. The current small-scale efficacy trial involved an ethnic–ra...

This chapter describes the process of developing an intervention grounded in developmental theory and focused on increasing adolescents’ ethnic-racial identity exploration and resolution. We begin by describing the impetus for the focus on ethnic-racial identity as a target for intervention, which includes a brief overview of prior research identif...

The importance of ethnicity/race for adolescents’ identity (i.e., centrality), and how that importance changes over time, may in part be a function of the social contexts that they inhabit. Although centrality has shown to be an adaptive component of ethnic/racial identity, little is known about how centrality changes during adolescence in relation...

Previous research has established that family ethnic socialization messages promote ethnic–racial identity (ERI) development, yet it is unknown whether these effects remain constant throughout adolescence. The current study examined the time-varying effects of family ethnic socialization on ERI exploration and resolution among Latino adolescents (n...

Given the social and developmental relevance of ethnicity-race during adolescence, it is important to understand the meaning of ethnic-racial identity in adolescents’ everyday lives. The current study considered how individual differences in ethnic-racial identity exploration (i.e., the extent to which individuals have explored their ethnicity-race...

How positively adolescents believe others feel about their ethnic-racial group (i.e., public regard) is an important part of their ethnic-racial identity (ERI), which is likely informed by contextual and individual factors. Using cluster analyses to generate ERI statuses among Black, Latino, and White adolescents (n = 1,378), we found that associat...

The current study modeled the simultaneous development of ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration and resolution for Latino adolescents (n=323, Mage at T1=15.31, SDage=.76; 49.5% female) from 9th to 12th grade. Three theoretically supported ERI trajectories emerged, including (1) high and significantly increasing exploration and resolution (i.e.,...

Blacks in the US experience accelerated declines in health and faster progression of aging diseases compared to Whites. This may be reflected in racial differences in underlying biomarkers. We examined the 5-year change in biomarkers of stress, and racial differences using latent transition analysis (LTA). Data were from the Heart and Soul Study, a...

Objectives: The effects of peer-based discrimination are especially harmful for adolescents given the heightened role of social feedback during this period. The current study aimed to understand the unique expressions of discrimination that adolescents experience between close peers and friends, as well as the daily influence of such experiences. M...

Theory and research have long indicated that ethnic-racial identity is a complex and multifaceted construct. However, there is a paucity of brief, easily administered measures that adequately capture this multidimensionality. Two studies were conducted to develop an abbreviated version of the Ethnic Identity Scale (EIS) and to explore its psychomet...

Everyday interactions with same-racial/ethnic others may confer positive benefits for adolescents, but the meaning of these interactions are likely influenced by individual differences and larger structural contexts. This study examined the situation-level association between contact with same-ethnic others and anxiety symptoms among a diverse samp...

The present research investigated whether having out-group friends serves as a buffer for feeling misunderstood in interracial interactions. Across three experience sampling studies, we found that among ethnic minorities who have few White friends or are not interacting with White friends, daily interracial interactions are associated with feeling...

Adolescence is recognized as an active period for ethnic identity development. Researchers have generally found that individuals who feel more positively about their ethnic identity (i.e., affirmation) and know what their ethnicity means to them (i.e., resolution) fare better across a host of psychological outcomes (Rivas-Drake et al., in press; Um...

The study presented here examined school context as a moderator in the relation between daily perceptions of racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. The sample included 75 Black adolescents who completed daily surveys for 14 days. The results indicated that approximately 97% of adolescents reported experiencing at least one discriminatory ex...

In this article, we review how the application of experience sampling methods (ESM) has advanced knowledge of the developmental importance of ethnic identity for youth outcomes. In particular, ESM approaches have allowed researchers to explore the construct of salience, the context-dependent and fluid component of ethnic identity. We highlight new...

This study examined the daily-level association between contact with same-ethnic others and ethnic private regard among 132 Asian adolescents (mean age = 14 years) attending four high schools ranging in ethnic composition diversity. The data suggest a positive daily-level association between contact with same-ethnic others and ethnic private regard...