Brown, Ursula M. Ph.D. (1995). Black/White Interracial Young Adults: Quest for A Racial Identity. American Orthopsychiatric Association, INC. 125-130.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among racial identity, conflict, and self-esteem in interracial young adults. The study was conducted on 119 young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 who were the offspring of one socially-defined black and one socially-defined white parent. The Brown Interracial Young Adult Interview was used to measure demographics; the degree to which respondents identity themselves as a black, white, or interracial person; and the experiences that influenced their identity outcome.     The results show that racial identity varied among participants, and the process was a multidimensional step. Although some identified themselves as black and some identify as white, the majority indicated that they would define themselves as interracial if there were a choice. There were also some differences in how they define themselves in public and in private. Many participants identified to different degrees with all identity options (128). The results show that in public black identity emerged as primary, and their white identity was secondary. On the contrary, in private the primary identity was interracial, and their secondary identity was black. Evidently, their racial identification as black increased as the participants aged; however, they also increasingly saw themselves as interracial. Experiences within the social environment emerged as significant predictors of racial identity.     The study shows that there was potential for conflict in all three racial identities (128). One conflict was that the interracial identity was not an officially legitimate one. The other was that a white or a black identity reflects half of the respondent’s heritage. As the result shows, many participants had experienced some degree of conflict over their racial identity (130). First of all, the common assumption that the most successful identity for interracial people is black was not verified from this study. They have mild conflict over their racial identity as black. Moreover, the data showed that a significant degree of conflict accompanied a white identity, whereas interracial people have the least conflict of all three identities when they identify themselves as interracial.

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