Ethnic/racial identity and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review

Over the last 20 years, ethnic/racial identity (ERI) has been regarded as a component central to identity for minority students, and often proposed to be positively associated with academic achievement. However, the findings of individual studies scattered across the literature suggest that the size and direction of the correlation is somewhat inconsistent, prompting the meta-analysis of 47 studies reported herein. The authors gave particular attention to specific moderator variables that might explain differences across these studies. Results demonstrated that the overall effect size for ERI and academic achievement was small but significant in the positive direction. Effect sizes varied according to participant race and the dimension of ERI used in the analysis. Theoretical and future research implications are discussed.