Social Identities and Intersectionality: A Conversation About the What and the How of Development

Research on the development of social identities in early and middle childhood has largely focused on gender; increasingly, however, theory and research have addressed the development of ethnic/racial, social class, sexual, and immigrant identities. Moreover, it is assumed that individuals’ thinking about and articulating of the intersectionality between their social identities emerge in adolescence and young adulthood, but a growing body of work has shown that minoritized children conceptualize their intersectional identities by middle childhood. This article reviews that work and addresses how interdisciplinary scholarship and quantitative and qualitative methodologies can deepen our understanding of the development of social identities and intersectionality. We take a contextual approach to investigate how relational and cultural contexts contour the socialization of social and intersectional identities. Most of our review focuses on theory and research in the United States; however, because we aim to consider immigrant identity, we also include theory and research on how immigrant families and communities help minoritized children and youth navigate their identities in schools and communities and cope with discrimination.