Erika Y Niwa
Biographic Data
| ID | 4227576 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Erika Y Niwa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Erika Y |
| FAMILY NAME | Niwa |
| SIGNATURE | NIWA E Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | City University of New York |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2395-9172 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 204 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Beyond nodding and smiling
Selective Kinship
Families are among the first sites where children learn how to think and feel about nonhuman animals. Yet, the everyday moral distinctions that parents make for children—such as which nonhuman animals are food, pets, wildlife, or entertainment—remain largely underexamined in family life. In this study, we approach the family as a key institution where species hierarchies are translated into parenting practices through everyday routines, explanati…
A people's academy
“Felix is My Brother”
An increasing number of children in the United States are growing up in multispecies families, a contemporary family structure where humans and companion animals form close bonds and share daily life, further fulfilling children’s attachment needs, providing social support, and contributing to psychosocial wellbeing. A burgeoning body of work highlights the important role of companion animals in shaping developmental outcomes across diverse domai…
Bursting bubbles
Children Understand More at that Age
Children are highly attuned to race early in life, yet parents often underestimate their capacity to process race‐related information, delaying discussions about race. Research suggests that parents’ perceptions of their children's readiness to learn about race influence the timing of these conversations; however, few studies have explored how such perceptions shape ethnic‐racial socialization across different ethnic/racial groups. In this mixed‐…
Socialization Past and Present
Animals are an integral part of the multispecies family, a new way of 'doing family.' Understanding the intergenerational transmission of human-animal relationship practices is essential as animals become embedded in family life. Despite growing research on companion animals' roles in child development, less is known about how parents' approaches to integrating animals into the family are shaped and transmitted. Through semi-structured interviews…
The double pandemic
Findings reaffirm the need to focus on Asian Americans' experiences and expand current conceptualizations of cultural stress to include macrolevel structural processes (COVID stress and racial discrimination) and its implications for identity and civic engagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
M(ai)cro
Both society and psychological science are deeply grounded in (and often perpetuate) white supremacy and anti-Blackness. While human development is inextricable from macro-level structural racism and hierarchies of oppression, developmental research often locates processes in the micro-level of individuals and relationships, ultimately obscuring how intimately macro-level forces shape developmental processes. The current paper aims to shift the s…
Coming full circle
When this special issue was first proposed in 2019, we endeavored to push forward scholarship about the various ways in which individuals, interactions, and settings communicate messages to children and youth about ethnicity and race. In particular, we aimed to broaden the scope of our current understanding of ethnic‐racial socialization through the inclusion of theory and research that took a more expansive approach. We sought papers focused on …
Through the looking glass
Ethnicity and race are critical in how children and youth experience, negotiate, and navigate development. A robust literature has illustrated that ethnic‐racial socialization (ERS) in particular plays an important role in how children develop an understanding of ethnicity and race. The majority of research has typically focused on parents as agents of socialization and ERS during adolescence. In addition, most studies use survey approaches and f…
Confronting whiteness
Beginning with a historical overview of the construction of whiteness, we identify gaps in extant scholarship and provide conceptual, contextual, and methodological considerations for confronting whiteness by advancing critical white ethnic‐racial socialization (ERS) research. First, we consider the mutually influential developmental processes of ERS experiences and the iterative nature of ethnic‐racial identity (ERI) formation among white childr…
Trajectories of civic socialization in context
Little is known about how developmental experiences spanning early childhood through adolescence prepare children and youth to engage with society, and even less so for ethnically diverse Black children and youth. Building from work linking positive youth development (PYD) to civic engagement, this study examined how socialization trajectories from early childhood through adolescence in concert with early childhood experiences and contexts relate…
Negative Stereotypes of Ethnic Outgroups
Ethno-political conflict impacts thousands of youth globally and has been associated with a number of negative psychological outcomes. Extant literature has mostly addressed the adverse emotional and behavioral outcomes of exposure while failing to examine change over time in social-cognitive factors in contexts of ethno-political conflict. Using cohort-sequential longitudinal data, the present study examines ethnic variation in the development o…
Trajectories of Ethnic-Racial Discrimination Among Ethnically Diverse Early Adolescents
Using longitudinal data, the authors assessed 585 Dominican, Chinese, and African American adolescents (Grades 6-8, M(age) at W1 = 11.83) to determine patterns over time of perceived ethnic-racial discrimination from adults and peers; if these patterns varied by gender, ethnicity, and immigrant status; and whether they are associated with psychological (self-esteem, depressive symptoms) and social (friend and teacher relationship quality, school …
To be or not to be
This qualitative study focused on the intersection of personal and ethnic identities among forty African American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Chinese American high school students. The patterns in content indicated that for the Puerto Ricans, the intersection of their personal and social identities was a series of accommodations to a positive peer climate and a resistance to being Dominican. For the other ethnic groups, the intersection of thei…
Parents' Goals for Children
Current scholarship on the cultural value systems of individualism and collectivism, and the associated developmental goals of autonomy and relatedness, has moved beyond grand divide theories to emphasize variation within individuals and cultures. We present a theoretical model on the dynamic coexistence of cultural value systems (at the macro level) and parents' developmental goals (at the micro level). We contend that cultural values and develo…
Parents' Goals for Children
Current scholarship on the cultural value systems of individualism and collectivism, and the associated developmental goals of autonomy and relatedness, has moved beyond grand divide theories to emphasize variation within individuals and cultures. We present a theoretical model on the dynamic coexistence of cultural value systems (at the macro level) and parents' developmental goals (at the micro level). We contend that cultural values and develo…
Trajectories of Ethnic-Racial Discrimination Among Ethnically Diverse Early Adolescents
Using longitudinal data, the authors assessed 585 Dominican, Chinese, and African American adolescents (Grades 6-8, M(age) at W1 = 11.83) to determine patterns over time of perceived ethnic-racial discrimination from adults and peers; if these patterns varied by gender, ethnicity, and immigrant status; and whether they are associated with psychological (self-esteem, depressive symptoms) and social (friend and teacher relationship quality, school …
To be or not to be
This qualitative study focused on the intersection of personal and ethnic identities among forty African American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Chinese American high school students. The patterns in content indicated that for the Puerto Ricans, the intersection of their personal and social identities was a series of accommodations to a positive peer climate and a resistance to being Dominican. For the other ethnic groups, the intersection of thei…
Through the looking glass
Ethnicity and race are critical in how children and youth experience, negotiate, and navigate development. A robust literature has illustrated that ethnic‐racial socialization (ERS) in particular plays an important role in how children develop an understanding of ethnicity and race. The majority of research has typically focused on parents as agents of socialization and ERS during adolescence. In addition, most studies use survey approaches and f…
Confronting whiteness
Beginning with a historical overview of the construction of whiteness, we identify gaps in extant scholarship and provide conceptual, contextual, and methodological considerations for confronting whiteness by advancing critical white ethnic‐racial socialization (ERS) research. First, we consider the mutually influential developmental processes of ERS experiences and the iterative nature of ethnic‐racial identity (ERI) formation among white childr…
Negative Stereotypes of Ethnic Outgroups
Ethno-political conflict impacts thousands of youth globally and has been associated with a number of negative psychological outcomes. Extant literature has mostly addressed the adverse emotional and behavioral outcomes of exposure while failing to examine change over time in social-cognitive factors in contexts of ethno-political conflict. Using cohort-sequential longitudinal data, the present study examines ethnic variation in the development o…
Bursting bubbles
The double pandemic
Findings reaffirm the need to focus on Asian Americans' experiences and expand current conceptualizations of cultural stress to include macrolevel structural processes (COVID stress and racial discrimination) and its implications for identity and civic engagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Trajectories of civic socialization in context
Little is known about how developmental experiences spanning early childhood through adolescence prepare children and youth to engage with society, and even less so for ethnically diverse Black children and youth. Building from work linking positive youth development (PYD) to civic engagement, this study examined how socialization trajectories from early childhood through adolescence in concert with early childhood experiences and contexts relate…
Parents' Goals for Children
Current scholarship on the cultural value systems of individualism and collectivism, and the associated developmental goals of autonomy and relatedness, has moved beyond grand divide theories to emphasize variation within individuals and cultures. We present a theoretical model on the dynamic coexistence of cultural value systems (at the macro level) and parents' developmental goals (at the micro level). We contend that cultural values and develo…
To be or not to be
This qualitative study focused on the intersection of personal and ethnic identities among forty African American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Chinese American high school students. The patterns in content indicated that for the Puerto Ricans, the intersection of their personal and social identities was a series of accommodations to a positive peer climate and a resistance to being Dominican. For the other ethnic groups, the intersection of thei…
Negative Stereotypes of Ethnic Outgroups
Ethno-political conflict impacts thousands of youth globally and has been associated with a number of negative psychological outcomes. Extant literature has mostly addressed the adverse emotional and behavioral outcomes of exposure while failing to examine change over time in social-cognitive factors in contexts of ethno-political conflict. Using cohort-sequential longitudinal data, the present study examines ethnic variation in the development o…
Trajectories of Ethnic-Racial Discrimination Among Ethnically Diverse Early Adolescents
Using longitudinal data, the authors assessed 585 Dominican, Chinese, and African American adolescents (Grades 6-8, M(age) at W1 = 11.83) to determine patterns over time of perceived ethnic-racial discrimination from adults and peers; if these patterns varied by gender, ethnicity, and immigrant status; and whether they are associated with psychological (self-esteem, depressive symptoms) and social (friend and teacher relationship quality, school …
Trajectories of civic socialization in context
Little is known about how developmental experiences spanning early childhood through adolescence prepare children and youth to engage with society, and even less so for ethnically diverse Black children and youth. Building from work linking positive youth development (PYD) to civic engagement, this study examined how socialization trajectories from early childhood through adolescence in concert with early childhood experiences and contexts relate…
M(ai)cro
Both society and psychological science are deeply grounded in (and often perpetuate) white supremacy and anti-Blackness. While human development is inextricable from macro-level structural racism and hierarchies of oppression, developmental research often locates processes in the micro-level of individuals and relationships, ultimately obscuring how intimately macro-level forces shape developmental processes. The current paper aims to shift the s…
Coming full circle
When this special issue was first proposed in 2019, we endeavored to push forward scholarship about the various ways in which individuals, interactions, and settings communicate messages to children and youth about ethnicity and race. In particular, we aimed to broaden the scope of our current understanding of ethnic‐racial socialization through the inclusion of theory and research that took a more expansive approach. We sought papers focused on …
Through the looking glass
Ethnicity and race are critical in how children and youth experience, negotiate, and navigate development. A robust literature has illustrated that ethnic‐racial socialization (ERS) in particular plays an important role in how children develop an understanding of ethnicity and race. The majority of research has typically focused on parents as agents of socialization and ERS during adolescence. In addition, most studies use survey approaches and f…
Confronting whiteness
Beginning with a historical overview of the construction of whiteness, we identify gaps in extant scholarship and provide conceptual, contextual, and methodological considerations for confronting whiteness by advancing critical white ethnic‐racial socialization (ERS) research. First, we consider the mutually influential developmental processes of ERS experiences and the iterative nature of ethnic‐racial identity (ERI) formation among white childr…
The double pandemic
Findings reaffirm the need to focus on Asian Americans' experiences and expand current conceptualizations of cultural stress to include macrolevel structural processes (COVID stress and racial discrimination) and its implications for identity and civic engagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Bursting bubbles
Children Understand More at that Age
Children are highly attuned to race early in life, yet parents often underestimate their capacity to process race‐related information, delaying discussions about race. Research suggests that parents’ perceptions of their children's readiness to learn about race influence the timing of these conversations; however, few studies have explored how such perceptions shape ethnic‐racial socialization across different ethnic/racial groups. In this mixed‐…
Socialization Past and Present
Animals are an integral part of the multispecies family, a new way of 'doing family.' Understanding the intergenerational transmission of human-animal relationship practices is essential as animals become embedded in family life. Despite growing research on companion animals' roles in child development, less is known about how parents' approaches to integrating animals into the family are shaped and transmitted. Through semi-structured interviews…
Beyond nodding and smiling
Selective Kinship
Families are among the first sites where children learn how to think and feel about nonhuman animals. Yet, the everyday moral distinctions that parents make for children—such as which nonhuman animals are food, pets, wildlife, or entertainment—remain largely underexamined in family life. In this study, we approach the family as a key institution where species hierarchies are translated into parenting practices through everyday routines, explanati…
A people's academy
“Felix is My Brother”
An increasing number of children in the United States are growing up in multispecies families, a contemporary family structure where humans and companion animals form close bonds and share daily life, further fulfilling children’s attachment needs, providing social support, and contributing to psychosocial wellbeing. A burgeoning body of work highlights the important role of companion animals in shaping developmental outcomes across diverse domai…
Psychology (12 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Ethnic group (7 works) · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research (7 works) · Developmental psychology (6 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Socialization (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)