Ursula Moffitt
Biographic Data
| ID | 795600 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ursula Moffitt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ursula |
| FAMILY NAME | Moffitt |
| SIGNATURE | MOFFITT U |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northwestern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4790-5168 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 127 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Using a Master Narrative Framework to Examine Conversations About Race and Ethnicity
OBJECTIVE: Systemic racism, reinforced by color-evasive ideology, shapes the ways that emerging adults process and discuss race/ethnicity. In this preregistered and mixed methods study, we used a master narrative framework to examine narratives about race/ethnicity among U.S. emerging adult friend-pairs. METHOD: Participants consisted of 107 friend-pairs (N = 214 total) who provided individually written racial/ethnic narratives and engaged in an …
Maintaining whiteness in a superdiverse context: White German parents' racial–ethnic socialization
Tolerance is inherent to our family: ” White German parents’ racial-ethnic socialization in an eastern German city
Parents help youth make sense of current society, including in relation to racial-ethnic inequity. The goal of the current study was to assess white racial-ethnic socialization (RES) in Germany. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 white German parents of elementary school children in an eastern German city and analyzed the data using reflexive thematic analysis. The most prominent theme was silence about race. One form this took was s…
Nice, Liberal Whiteness: Maternal and Youth Socialization and Identity in the Context of White Racial Segregation
In the United States, how parents and youth make sense of, resist, and reinforce the macro-level context of white supremacy and intersectional oppression is crucial to racial socialization and identity development. In the current paper, we examine this reciprocal relationship, arguing that nice, liberal whiteness acts as a master narrative in New England, where the current study takes place. Comprised of a self-image of tolerance combined with ge…
Parents Subjected to the Asylum System Navigating Racist Discourse: Through the Lens of Resistance and Accommodation
Racism permeates societies globally, including within Germany's educational system. Specifically, people from the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region experience anti-Muslim racism. This study explores how racially minoritized parents subjected to the asylum system navigate racist discourse within societal and institutional structures, focusing on their strategies of resistance and accommodation. Guided by a social constructionist epist…
Studying Identity and Migration in the Open Science Era: Lessons Learned from Registered Reports
White ≠ European (American): Commentary on the American Psychological Association’s updated Inclusive Language Guide
The American Psychological Association (APA) released the second edition of the Inclusive Language Guide in late 2023. One aspect of this guide that was not updated from the previous version was the recommendation for authors to use either "White" or "European (nationality)" when "writing about people of European ancestry." In this commentary, we argue that "white" and "European" or "European American," for instance, are not terms that can or sho…
Research as resistance: Naming and dismantling the master narrative of “good” science
From its inception, psychology used science to produce what was framed as incontrovertible "hard" evidence of racial hierarchy, infallible "proof" that white people (i.e., cismale, heteronormative, and economically resourced white people) were superior to Indigenous and Black people. We first trace the historical links between postpositivist epistemology and the ideology of white supremacy in psychological science, showing that although explicitl…
Beyond ‘migrant background’: How to select relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories in educational research
Across continental Europe, educational research samples are often divided by ‘migrant background’, a binary variable criticized for masking participant heterogeneity and reinforcing exclusionary norms of belonging. This study endorses more meaningful, representative, and precise research by offering four guiding questions for selecting relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories for collecting and analysing data in psycholog…
Intersectionality and Identity: A Systematic Review and Qualitative Analysis of U.S. Research in Psychological Science
Where’s My People?”: An Investigation of the Structure and Content of Black and Latinx College Students’ Ethnic-Racial Identity Narratives
As attending college became a normative life experience in the U.S., society developed a cultural narrative about what a “good” college experience looks like. But, for racially minoritized college students, this master narrative often excludes their experiences. Integrating narrative and ethnic-racial identity, the current study investigates how a sample of 11 Black and Latinx students ( M age = 19.73) narrate their lives in college and make mean…
Critical Consciousness Socialization at School: Classroom Climate, Perceived Societal Islamophobia, and Critical Action Among Adolescents
Schools are key contexts for the development of adolescents' critical consciousness. We explored how three dimensions of the classroom cultural diversity climate (critical consciousness, color-evasion, and multiculturalism) related to adolescents' critical reflection (i.e., perceived societal Islamophobia) and intended critical action (i.e., political activism). Our sample included adolescents experiencing high (second generation, Muslim, N = 237…
Race Talk During the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election: Emerging Adults’ Critical Consciousness and Racial Identity in Context
In this study, we drew on the m(ai)cro framework, which centers racism as a macrosystem, to examine how college-going emerging adults made meaning about society and themselves during the 2020 U.S. presidential election and 2021 inauguration. This period was marked by racial justice protests, a global pandemic, anti-Asian violence, and the storming of the U.S. Capitol by predominantly white Trump supporters. Using the constructs of critical consci…
Studying Ethnic‐Racial Identity among White Youth: White Supremacy as a Developmental Context
As developmental scholars increasingly study ethnic and racial identity among white youth, careful reflection is needed regarding its framing, implementation, and interpretation. In this three-part conceptual paper, we offer a foundation for such reflection. First, we discuss the sociocultural context of white supremacy that shapes U.S. society, psychology, and adolescent development, and situate the study of ethnic and racial identity among whit…
Ethnic-racial identity in Europe: Adapting the identity project intervention in five countries
A global challenge for developmental psychology is to better understand how young people around the world make sense of their identities growing up in pluralistic societies. The study of ethnic-racial identity provides an important lens for this process. This paper describes how five European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, and Sweden) adapted the Identity Project, an 8-week school-based intervention originally developed in the United …
“Martin Luther King Fixed It”: Children Making Sense of Racial Identity in a Colorblind Society
Children in the United States grow up in a context wherein colorblindness and racism coexist. This article examined how colorblindness functions as a societal “master narrative” that shapes how children construct their own racial identities. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 217 Black, White, and Multiracial children (Mage = 9.92) in public schools in the Pacific Northwest during 2013–2014 academic year. Our analysis identif…
Ethnic-Racial Identity in Action: Structure and Content of Friends’ Conversations about Ethnicity and Race
Among emerging adults, peers are central to ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, acting as primary interlocuters in discussions about ethnicity and race. Although ERI development is understood as adaptive, particularly for young people of color, ethnicity and race related conversations are often highly charged, and can consist of both positive, self-affirming exchanges, as well as negative experiences of identity denial, disinterest, and dis…
Understanding Ethnic-Racial Identity in a Context Where “Race” Is Taboo
Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is an important aspect of youth development and has been well-studied for the last several decades. One issue less discussed is how the construct of ERI translates across different countries and cultures. The purpose of our paper is to describe the sociohistorical context of Germany and implications for the study of ethnic-racial identity in Europe. We discuss the German adaption of the Identity Project, an 8-week sch…
No, Where are You Really From: Testing the Foreigner Objectification Scale With German Adolescents
Being perceived as a foreigner regardless of one’s generational status, citizenship, or self-identification is called foreigner objectification. This is a form of identity denial and is linked to psychological distress. To test how foreigner objectification could be measured in Europe, we assessed whether the Foreigner Objectification Scale demonstrated reliability and validity with German adolescents. The sample included 806 9 th graders from 17…
Beyond Ethnicity: Applying Helms’s White Racial Identity Development Model Among White Youth
Research on racial identity among Youth of Color has expanded considerably in recent years, but a parallel examination of racial identity among white youth has not occurred, reiterating whiteness as normative. We applied Janet Helms's White Racial Identity Development (WRID) model among white U.S. youth (8-14 years old) to address this research gap. WRID centers racism and white supremacy, offering a framework to analyze white racial identity in …
The Identity Project intervention in Germany: Creating a climate for reflection, connection, and adolescent identity development
We examined whether German adolescents who participated in an adapted 8-week school-based intervention, the Identity Project, reported greater changes in heritage and global identities and perceptions of classroom cultural climate. We used a longitudinal, wait-list control design pooling eight classrooms across the school years of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. The sample included 195 seventh graders (M age = 12.35 years, SD = .79, 39% female, 83% of m…
Becoming Canadian: Immigrant narratives of professional attainment
We don’t do that in Germany!” A critical race theory examination of Turkish heritage young adults’ school experiences
Turkish heritage students are underrepresented at university-track secondary schools in Germany, yet the institutional discrimination contributing to this ongoing disparity often remains unquestioned, situated within inequitable norms of belonging. Drawing on critical race theory and a risk and resilience framework, the current study investigated the interplay between institutional and interpersonal discrimination in relation to exclusionary norm…
Schools as Acculturative and Developmental Contexts for Youth of Immigrant and Refugee Background
Schools are important for the academic and socio-emotional development, as well as acculturation of immigrant- and refugee-background youth. We highlight individual differences which shape their unique experiences, while considering three levels of the school context in terms of how they may affect adaptation outcomes: (1) interindividual interactions in the classroom (such as peer relations, student-teacher relations, teacher beliefs, and teachi…
Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression: Links to racial‐ethnic discrimination and adjustment among Latino/a and Asian‐heritage college students
Our findings highlight the importance of examining multiple emotion regulation strategies simultaneously-considering what strategies are available to individuals and in what combination they are used-to understand how best to deal with negative emotions resulting from experiencing discrimination
We don’t do that in Germany!” A critical race theory examination of Turkish heritage young adults’ school experiences
Turkish heritage students are underrepresented at university-track secondary schools in Germany, yet the institutional discrimination contributing to this ongoing disparity often remains unquestioned, situated within inequitable norms of belonging. Drawing on critical race theory and a risk and resilience framework, the current study investigated the interplay between institutional and interpersonal discrimination in relation to exclusionary norm…
Studying Ethnic‐Racial Identity among White Youth: White Supremacy as a Developmental Context
As developmental scholars increasingly study ethnic and racial identity among white youth, careful reflection is needed regarding its framing, implementation, and interpretation. In this three-part conceptual paper, we offer a foundation for such reflection. First, we discuss the sociocultural context of white supremacy that shapes U.S. society, psychology, and adolescent development, and situate the study of ethnic and racial identity among whit…
Ethnic-racial identity in Europe: Adapting the identity project intervention in five countries
A global challenge for developmental psychology is to better understand how young people around the world make sense of their identities growing up in pluralistic societies. The study of ethnic-racial identity provides an important lens for this process. This paper describes how five European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, and Sweden) adapted the Identity Project, an 8-week school-based intervention originally developed in the United …
Beyond Ethnicity: Applying Helms’s White Racial Identity Development Model Among White Youth
Research on racial identity among Youth of Color has expanded considerably in recent years, but a parallel examination of racial identity among white youth has not occurred, reiterating whiteness as normative. We applied Janet Helms's White Racial Identity Development (WRID) model among white U.S. youth (8-14 years old) to address this research gap. WRID centers racism and white supremacy, offering a framework to analyze white racial identity in …
Research as resistance: Naming and dismantling the master narrative of “good” science
From its inception, psychology used science to produce what was framed as incontrovertible "hard" evidence of racial hierarchy, infallible "proof" that white people (i.e., cismale, heteronormative, and economically resourced white people) were superior to Indigenous and Black people. We first trace the historical links between postpositivist epistemology and the ideology of white supremacy in psychological science, showing that although explicitl…
No, Where are You Really From: Testing the Foreigner Objectification Scale With German Adolescents
Being perceived as a foreigner regardless of one’s generational status, citizenship, or self-identification is called foreigner objectification. This is a form of identity denial and is linked to psychological distress. To test how foreigner objectification could be measured in Europe, we assessed whether the Foreigner Objectification Scale demonstrated reliability and validity with German adolescents. The sample included 806 9 th graders from 17…
Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression: Links to racial‐ethnic discrimination and adjustment among Latino/a and Asian‐heritage college students
Our findings highlight the importance of examining multiple emotion regulation strategies simultaneously-considering what strategies are available to individuals and in what combination they are used-to understand how best to deal with negative emotions resulting from experiencing discrimination
Critical Consciousness Socialization at School: Classroom Climate, Perceived Societal Islamophobia, and Critical Action Among Adolescents
Schools are key contexts for the development of adolescents' critical consciousness. We explored how three dimensions of the classroom cultural diversity climate (critical consciousness, color-evasion, and multiculturalism) related to adolescents' critical reflection (i.e., perceived societal Islamophobia) and intended critical action (i.e., political activism). Our sample included adolescents experiencing high (second generation, Muslim, N = 237…
Race Talk During the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election: Emerging Adults’ Critical Consciousness and Racial Identity in Context
In this study, we drew on the m(ai)cro framework, which centers racism as a macrosystem, to examine how college-going emerging adults made meaning about society and themselves during the 2020 U.S. presidential election and 2021 inauguration. This period was marked by racial justice protests, a global pandemic, anti-Asian violence, and the storming of the U.S. Capitol by predominantly white Trump supporters. Using the constructs of critical consci…
Parents Subjected to the Asylum System Navigating Racist Discourse: Through the Lens of Resistance and Accommodation
Racism permeates societies globally, including within Germany's educational system. Specifically, people from the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region experience anti-Muslim racism. This study explores how racially minoritized parents subjected to the asylum system navigate racist discourse within societal and institutional structures, focusing on their strategies of resistance and accommodation. Guided by a social constructionist epist…
Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression: Links to racial‐ethnic discrimination and adjustment among Latino/a and Asian‐heritage college students
Our findings highlight the importance of examining multiple emotion regulation strategies simultaneously-considering what strategies are available to individuals and in what combination they are used-to understand how best to deal with negative emotions resulting from experiencing discrimination
Schools as Acculturative and Developmental Contexts for Youth of Immigrant and Refugee Background
Schools are important for the academic and socio-emotional development, as well as acculturation of immigrant- and refugee-background youth. We highlight individual differences which shape their unique experiences, while considering three levels of the school context in terms of how they may affect adaptation outcomes: (1) interindividual interactions in the classroom (such as peer relations, student-teacher relations, teacher beliefs, and teachi…
We don’t do that in Germany!” A critical race theory examination of Turkish heritage young adults’ school experiences
Turkish heritage students are underrepresented at university-track secondary schools in Germany, yet the institutional discrimination contributing to this ongoing disparity often remains unquestioned, situated within inequitable norms of belonging. Drawing on critical race theory and a risk and resilience framework, the current study investigated the interplay between institutional and interpersonal discrimination in relation to exclusionary norm…
The Identity Project intervention in Germany: Creating a climate for reflection, connection, and adolescent identity development
We examined whether German adolescents who participated in an adapted 8-week school-based intervention, the Identity Project, reported greater changes in heritage and global identities and perceptions of classroom cultural climate. We used a longitudinal, wait-list control design pooling eight classrooms across the school years of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. The sample included 195 seventh graders (M age = 12.35 years, SD = .79, 39% female, 83% of m…
Becoming Canadian: Immigrant narratives of professional attainment
“Martin Luther King Fixed It”: Children Making Sense of Racial Identity in a Colorblind Society
Children in the United States grow up in a context wherein colorblindness and racism coexist. This article examined how colorblindness functions as a societal “master narrative” that shapes how children construct their own racial identities. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 217 Black, White, and Multiracial children (Mage = 9.92) in public schools in the Pacific Northwest during 2013–2014 academic year. Our analysis identif…
Ethnic-Racial Identity in Action: Structure and Content of Friends’ Conversations about Ethnicity and Race
Among emerging adults, peers are central to ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, acting as primary interlocuters in discussions about ethnicity and race. Although ERI development is understood as adaptive, particularly for young people of color, ethnicity and race related conversations are often highly charged, and can consist of both positive, self-affirming exchanges, as well as negative experiences of identity denial, disinterest, and dis…
Understanding Ethnic-Racial Identity in a Context Where “Race” Is Taboo
Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is an important aspect of youth development and has been well-studied for the last several decades. One issue less discussed is how the construct of ERI translates across different countries and cultures. The purpose of our paper is to describe the sociohistorical context of Germany and implications for the study of ethnic-racial identity in Europe. We discuss the German adaption of the Identity Project, an 8-week sch…
No, Where are You Really From: Testing the Foreigner Objectification Scale With German Adolescents
Being perceived as a foreigner regardless of one’s generational status, citizenship, or self-identification is called foreigner objectification. This is a form of identity denial and is linked to psychological distress. To test how foreigner objectification could be measured in Europe, we assessed whether the Foreigner Objectification Scale demonstrated reliability and validity with German adolescents. The sample included 806 9 th graders from 17…
Beyond Ethnicity: Applying Helms’s White Racial Identity Development Model Among White Youth
Research on racial identity among Youth of Color has expanded considerably in recent years, but a parallel examination of racial identity among white youth has not occurred, reiterating whiteness as normative. We applied Janet Helms's White Racial Identity Development (WRID) model among white U.S. youth (8-14 years old) to address this research gap. WRID centers racism and white supremacy, offering a framework to analyze white racial identity in …
Critical Consciousness Socialization at School: Classroom Climate, Perceived Societal Islamophobia, and Critical Action Among Adolescents
Schools are key contexts for the development of adolescents' critical consciousness. We explored how three dimensions of the classroom cultural diversity climate (critical consciousness, color-evasion, and multiculturalism) related to adolescents' critical reflection (i.e., perceived societal Islamophobia) and intended critical action (i.e., political activism). Our sample included adolescents experiencing high (second generation, Muslim, N = 237…
Race Talk During the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election: Emerging Adults’ Critical Consciousness and Racial Identity in Context
In this study, we drew on the m(ai)cro framework, which centers racism as a macrosystem, to examine how college-going emerging adults made meaning about society and themselves during the 2020 U.S. presidential election and 2021 inauguration. This period was marked by racial justice protests, a global pandemic, anti-Asian violence, and the storming of the U.S. Capitol by predominantly white Trump supporters. Using the constructs of critical consci…
Studying Ethnic‐Racial Identity among White Youth: White Supremacy as a Developmental Context
As developmental scholars increasingly study ethnic and racial identity among white youth, careful reflection is needed regarding its framing, implementation, and interpretation. In this three-part conceptual paper, we offer a foundation for such reflection. First, we discuss the sociocultural context of white supremacy that shapes U.S. society, psychology, and adolescent development, and situate the study of ethnic and racial identity among whit…
Ethnic-racial identity in Europe: Adapting the identity project intervention in five countries
A global challenge for developmental psychology is to better understand how young people around the world make sense of their identities growing up in pluralistic societies. The study of ethnic-racial identity provides an important lens for this process. This paper describes how five European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, and Sweden) adapted the Identity Project, an 8-week school-based intervention originally developed in the United …
Beyond ‘migrant background’: How to select relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories in educational research
Across continental Europe, educational research samples are often divided by ‘migrant background’, a binary variable criticized for masking participant heterogeneity and reinforcing exclusionary norms of belonging. This study endorses more meaningful, representative, and precise research by offering four guiding questions for selecting relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories for collecting and analysing data in psycholog…
Intersectionality and Identity: A Systematic Review and Qualitative Analysis of U.S. Research in Psychological Science
Where’s My People?”: An Investigation of the Structure and Content of Black and Latinx College Students’ Ethnic-Racial Identity Narratives
As attending college became a normative life experience in the U.S., society developed a cultural narrative about what a “good” college experience looks like. But, for racially minoritized college students, this master narrative often excludes their experiences. Integrating narrative and ethnic-racial identity, the current study investigates how a sample of 11 Black and Latinx students ( M age = 19.73) narrate their lives in college and make mean…
White ≠ European (American): Commentary on the American Psychological Association’s updated Inclusive Language Guide
The American Psychological Association (APA) released the second edition of the Inclusive Language Guide in late 2023. One aspect of this guide that was not updated from the previous version was the recommendation for authors to use either "White" or "European (nationality)" when "writing about people of European ancestry." In this commentary, we argue that "white" and "European" or "European American," for instance, are not terms that can or sho…
Research as resistance: Naming and dismantling the master narrative of “good” science
From its inception, psychology used science to produce what was framed as incontrovertible "hard" evidence of racial hierarchy, infallible "proof" that white people (i.e., cismale, heteronormative, and economically resourced white people) were superior to Indigenous and Black people. We first trace the historical links between postpositivist epistemology and the ideology of white supremacy in psychological science, showing that although explicitl…
Maintaining whiteness in a superdiverse context: White German parents' racial–ethnic socialization
Tolerance is inherent to our family: ” White German parents’ racial-ethnic socialization in an eastern German city
Parents help youth make sense of current society, including in relation to racial-ethnic inequity. The goal of the current study was to assess white racial-ethnic socialization (RES) in Germany. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 white German parents of elementary school children in an eastern German city and analyzed the data using reflexive thematic analysis. The most prominent theme was silence about race. One form this took was s…
Nice, Liberal Whiteness: Maternal and Youth Socialization and Identity in the Context of White Racial Segregation
In the United States, how parents and youth make sense of, resist, and reinforce the macro-level context of white supremacy and intersectional oppression is crucial to racial socialization and identity development. In the current paper, we examine this reciprocal relationship, arguing that nice, liberal whiteness acts as a master narrative in New England, where the current study takes place. Comprised of a self-image of tolerance combined with ge…
Parents Subjected to the Asylum System Navigating Racist Discourse: Through the Lens of Resistance and Accommodation
Racism permeates societies globally, including within Germany's educational system. Specifically, people from the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region experience anti-Muslim racism. This study explores how racially minoritized parents subjected to the asylum system navigate racist discourse within societal and institutional structures, focusing on their strategies of resistance and accommodation. Guided by a social constructionist epist…
Studying Identity and Migration in the Open Science Era: Lessons Learned from Registered Reports
Using a Master Narrative Framework to Examine Conversations About Race and Ethnicity
OBJECTIVE: Systemic racism, reinforced by color-evasive ideology, shapes the ways that emerging adults process and discuss race/ethnicity. In this preregistered and mixed methods study, we used a master narrative framework to examine narratives about race/ethnicity among U.S. emerging adult friend-pairs. METHOD: Participants consisted of 107 friend-pairs (N = 214 total) who provided individually written racial/ethnic narratives and engaged in an …
Psychology (21 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research (16 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Ethnic group (12 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Critical Race Theory in Education (11 works) · Identity (music (10 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (8 works)