The explorer's edge: Racial-ethnic identity exploration confers early adolescents of color with protection against racial-ethnic discrimination in a co-sibling control study

Racial-ethnic identity development may help adolescents cope with racial-ethnic discrimination. Exploration reflects efforts to understand one's racial-ethnic background, whereas commitment represents a sense of connection to one's racial-ethnic group. The present study investigated whether these identity components moderated associations between discrimination and psychopathology symptoms one year later among 1,184 adolescents of color (ages: 11-12; 52% female, 48% male; 35% Black, 36% Latino, 3% Asian, 26% Other youth of color; Waves 3-4: 2019-2022) nested within 656 families. In sibling fixed-effect models, adolescents reporting greater racial-ethnic identity exploration than their siblings showed weaker associations between discrimination and psychopathology symptoms. Racial-ethnic identity commitment did not moderate these associations. Findings underscore the developmental significance of identity exploration as a protective process during early adolescence.