How Feelings of Belonging are Influenced by Racial/Ethnic Categorizations

Racial/ethnic minorities may at times be inappropriately classified or denied the opportunity to accurately self-categorize in their preferred racial/ethnic groups. As a result, racial/ethnic minorities may feel less belonging as a member of a society that fails to recognize these preferred identities. This study offers a model for exploring whether having one's preferred race/ethnicity inadequately represented leads to experiencing social identity threat, and whether social identity threat leads to decreased feelings of belonging as a U.S. American. Using a sample of Hispanic or Latino/a Americans, we manipulated how their preferred races/ethnicities would be represented. We predicted that having one's preferred race/ethnicity inadequately represented would lead to increased feelings of social identity threat and decreased feelings of belonging as U.S. Americans. A serial mediation was conducted to test this model. Results supported these hypotheses. This research demonstrates the negative consequences of inadequately representing people's preferred races/ethnicities on feelings of belonging.