Urban to Suburban Migration: Black Adolescents’ Adaptive Strategies

Urban to Suburban Migration: Black Adolescents` Adaptive Strategies

Nancy Seay, Simmons College of Kentucky

Revathy Kumar, University of Toledo

mail to: nseay@simmonscollegeky.edu

Entrenched racial segregation, a characteristic of large metropolitan areas in the United States, contributed to the formation of distinct cultural practices and identities among predominantly white, middle-class suburbanites and black, working-class urbanites. Thus, for urban black adolescents, the migration to predominantly white suburbs can be understood as a cultural journey. This paper blends Berry and colleagues’ (2006) bi-dimensional acculturation and Marcia’s (1980) identity status theories to examine identity development among black adolescents during their sojourn from Detroit to predominantly white suburban communities. Seven focus group interviews were conducted with 48 (F=23) black eighth-grade students in six middle schools, located in two suburban school districts. Qualitative analysis suggests that for this group, acculturation and identity development is a tandem process. Accordingly, there may be as many as eight fluid acculturation profiles depending on the degree to which adolescents’ explored, and committed to a given identity. For some students, however, search and commitment options were constrained by structural and social barriers in the receiving community. Ingroup peer pressure to maintain traditional culture was also a restraining factor. Nonetheless, students displayed within profile (strength of commitment) and across profile (length of commitment) variability by actual and phenomenological contexts.

References

Berry, J. W., Phinney, J., Sam, D. L., & Vedder, P. (2006). Immigrant youth: Acculturation, identity, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 55, 303-332.

Marcia, J. E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 159-187). New York: Wiley.