Although ethnic and racial identity (ERI) are central to the normative development of youth of color, there have been few efforts to bring scholars together to discuss the theoretical complexities of these constructs and provide a synthesis of existing work. The Ethnic and Racial Identity in the 21st Century Study Group was assembled for this purpose. This article provides an overview of the interface of ERI with developmental and contextual issues across development, with an emphasis on adolescence and young adulthood. It proposes a metaconstruct to capture experiences that reflect both individuals' ethnic background and their racialized experiences in a specific sociohistorical context. Finally, it presents milestones in the development of ERI across developmental periods.

The purpose of this investigation was to develop a conceptually grounded scale to assess cognitive aspects of color-blind racial attitudes. Five studies on the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) with over 1,100 observations provide initial reliability and validity data. Specifically, results from an exploratory factor analysis suggest a 3-factor solution: Unawareness of Racial Privilege, Institutional Discrimination, and Blatant Racial Issues. A confirmatory factor analysis suggests that the 3-factor model is a good fit of the data and is the best of the competing models. The CoBRAS was positively related to other indexes of racial attitudes as well as 2 measures of belief in a just world, indicating that greater endorsement of color-blind racial attitudes was related to greater levels of racial prejudice and a belief that society is just and fair. Self-reported CoBRAS attitudes were sensitive to diversity training. Over the past 25 years, psychologists have articulated theories and developed corresponding scales to assess modern racial attitudes, many of which have focused on racial prejudice. These new theories and corresponding scales have contributed to how psychologists understand and assess racial attitudes. Three of the most common theories used to describe racial attitudes are the interrelated conceptualizations of symbolic racism (McConahay & Hough, 1976), modern racism (McConahay, 1986), and aversive racism. These theories were developed to understand post-Civil Rights movement expressions of individual racism. They all underscore that racial prejudice is manifested in (a) negative attitudes toward racial and ethnic minority groups, primarily Blacks; (b) "ambivalence between feelings of nonprejudice or egalitarianism and those

The study developed 2 measures of belongingness based on H. Kohut's (1984) self psychology theory. The Social Connectedness Scale and the Social Assurance Scale were constructed with a split-sample procedure on 626 college students. Internal reliability estimates for the 2 scales were .91 and .82, respectively. Test-retest correlations revealed good test stability over a 2-week period (rs = .96 and .84, respectively). Cross-validation for the 2 measures was achieved with confirmatory factor analysis with an incremental fit index greater than .90. Scale functions are described and results are discussed in light of current research and theory. Heinz Kohut's self psychology (1971, 1977, 1984) has received considerable attention in the field of counseling psychology over the past decade (Gelso & Fassinger, 1990). Early empirical research dates back to Patton, Connor, and Scott (1982), who provided operational definitions for two self constructs, namely, grandiosity and idealization. Soon thereafter, two self-report scales were constructed to measure aspects of these constructs, the Superiority Scale and the Goal Instability Scale, respectively (Robbins & Patton, 1985). Other self psychology measures have since been developed (Lapan & Patton, 1986;Shreve & Patton, 1988). With these developments in measurement, self psychology has been applied to numerous populations and areas of psychology, including career counseling, personality development, adolescent identity, and aging (Blustein & Palladino, 1991;Robbins, 1989;Robbins, Lee, & Wan, 1994).Despite the recent developments and the heuristic value of self psychology, little research has been conducted on the alter ego or belongingness construct that was later proposed by Kohut (1984). This is surprising given both the importance and lack of belongingness in today's society. Clinical and social observations point to the growing feelings of loneliness, isolation, and alienation among adolescents, young adults, immigrants, and other groups in America

The construction of an ethnic or racial identity is considered an important developmental milestone for youth of color. This review summarizes research on links between ethnic and racial identity (ERI) with psychosocial, academic, and health risk outcomes among ethnic minority adolescents. With notable exceptions, aspects of ERI are generally associated with adaptive outcomes. ERI are generally beneficial for African American adolescents' adjustment across all three domains, whereas the evidence is somewhat mixed for Latino and American Indian youth. There is a dearth of research for academic and health risk outcomes among Asian American and Pacific Islander adolescents. The review concludes with suggestions for future research on ERI among minority youth.

The study examined the relationship among social connectedness, dysfunctional interpersonal behaviors, and psychological distress. The authors specifically hypothesized that the direct negative effect of social connectedness on psychological distress would be mediated by dysfunctional interpersonal behaviors. Prior to testing the hypothesis, the authors revised the original Social Connectedness Scale (SCS; R. M. Lee & S. B. Robbins, 1995). Studies 1 and 2 describe the revision and validation of the SCS on separate samples of college students. In Study 3, the authors surveyed 184 college students and found support for the mediation hypothesis on general psychological distress. The importance of assessing social connectedness and tailoring counseling interventions for people with low connectedness and dysfunctional interpersonal behaviors is addressed.