Abstract
Ethnic identity achievement is the outcome of an exploration process that results in a stable and secure understanding of one’s ethnic group. The achievement process helps people understand and cope with racial discrimination and prejudice they experience and is thus essential for the development of positive self-worth for youth and young adults. However, the theoretical relationship between ethnic identity achievement and self-worth is not entirely clear. Drawing on an ethnically diverse sample of college students (N = 1504), we test a theoretical model hypothesizing that ethnic identity achievement helps people verify their ethnic identity. In turn, this enhances how people feel about themselves as a member of their ethnic group (group-specific self-worth), and thus how they feel about themselves generally (global self-worth). We find support for our hypotheses with no evidence of gender or ethnic variation. By integrating the ethnic identity achievement model with principles from identity theory, our findings provide theoretical elaboration to the ethnic identity achievement process as well as the role played by group-specific self-worth in the verification of social identities.