Research Overview
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All of us identify with various social groups defined by constructs like race, gender, class, and age. Moreover, identity is also complex and fluid. People might straddle boundaries between different groups, reconstruct and negotiate identities and group memberships over time, and experience exclusion or discrimination based on these identities and group memberships.
To research these complexities and challenges of group-based identity, much of my research focuses on the experiences of Multiracial and Multicultural people, who identify with more than one racial or cultural group respectively.
Social Exclusion Shapes Identity
Social groups establish and maintain social identities, yet, existing theories on collective-identification have overlooked the role of exclusion in this process. In my dissertation work, I find that various forms of social exclusion can serve as a unique catalyst that lead to identity reconceptualization for both Multiracial and Multicultural populations.
Navigating Multiple Group Memberships
Challenges to identity like identity denial or questioning are all too common for multiracial and multicultural people. My work shows that one’s heritage language abilities can serve as a primary source of exclusion (Tsai, Straka, & Gaither, 2021), and that Multiracial and Multicultural individuals weigh systemic risks when negotiating identity and utilize various strategies to assert their identities following experiences of denial (Tsai, Straka, & Diasuke, 2022).
Health Outcomes of Historically Excluded Groups
My research finds that identity denial may have adverse psychological and physiological effects for Multiracial and Multicultural people (Albuja, Gaither, Sanchez, Straka, & Cipollina, 2019). Similarly, as first-generation students face challenges to belonging while navigating college or university, my research shows that identity integration predicts life satisfaction, acculturative stress, and general health (Herrmann, Varnum, Straka, & Gaither, 2021). My research also demonstrates that threats to belonging may motivate drinking for some racial/ethnic groups (Straka, Gaither, Acheson, & Swartzwelder, 2019) and Native American students in particular may experience high rates of negative alcohol-related outcomes (e.g., *Straka, Albuja, Desjardins, Gaither, Swartzwelder, 2021).
Early Cognitions about Group Membership and Social Categorization
Children already cognitively process boundaries of group membership early in development. In my research, I find that young children rely on interpersonally communicated social cues about individuals and groups to determine group membership (Straka, Stanaland, Gaither, & Tomasello, 2021).
*Indicates shared first-authorship
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