African and Caribbean Adolescents in Britain: Ethnic Identity and Britishness

Abstract

Ethnic and national identities of 11-16-year-old British Africans and Caribbeans were examined by the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney 1992) and Britishness questionnaire (Barrett 2000). Adolescents ranked ethnicity as more important than age, gender or nationality, stereotyped Caribbeans/Africans more positively than British, and derived more pride from ethnicity than nationality. England was the least popular answer to “where are you from”, but more Caribbeans versus Africans chose this category and older Caribbeans described themselves as more ‘British’ than older Africans. Girls reported stronger ethnic identity than boys, who rated Britishness as more important, reported stronger British pride and liked British people more than girls did. Stereotypes of ethnic and national group members were associated with the strength of self-identification with the group. It is concluded that theory and research should depart from conventional notions that equate each racial label with one culture and one identity.