released by the U.S. Department of Education (2002), 15.57% and 17.16% of students

are Hispanic and African American, respectively. According to the United States Census

Bureau (2000), 12.3% of the population are of Hispanic origin and 12.5% are black or

African American. These percentages are different due to the fact that more African

American and Hispanic families have children under the age of 18 years old (U.S. Census

Bureau, 2000) and these ethnic groups are over-represented in the public school system.

 Instrumentation

Demographics

 The following demographic data were included in the survey: age, sex, ethnicity,

socioeconomic status (SES), and single-parent household status. The racial and/or ethnic

background was assessed utilizing categories designed to accompany the Multigroup

Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992).

 Socioeconomic Status (SES) was assessed utilizing the Two Factor Index of

Social Position, developed by Hollingshead (1965). This is a widely used measure of

SES that asks the participants to report their parent's level of education and occupation.

These responses were categorized and weighted to calculate a score from 11-77. This

score can be used as a continuous variable or converted into social class categories

(Hollingshead, 1965). For this study the social class categories were used in the analyses.

This measure has been widely validated. The two-factor index is preferable with

adolescents, because they are usually unable to answer accurately the third factor,

household income.

Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure

 The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) was used to measure ethnic

identity. The MEIM was originally designed based on prior qualitative data (Phinney,