Indigenous self-identification across generations: Parent–child links in Australian survey data

Abstract:

Our study is an exploratory examination of Indigenous self-identification within families using triads of biological mothers, fathers, and children. This study investigates whether individuals select the same response to the Indigenous identification question as their biological parents and what leads to ‘matches’ or ‘mismatches’ in Indigenous self-identification between parents and children. Using 18 waves of Australian household panel data, we observe three main findings. First, when mothers’ and fathers’ identification responses are mixed, children’s self-identifications are more varied, but still tend toward Indigenous rather than non-Indigenous (hypodescent). Second, mothers’ identification responses are particularly important for predicting children’s self-identification. Children of Indigenous mothers are likely to select an Indigenous identification regardless of their fathers’ identification; this is less often the case for children with Indigenous fathers and non-Indigenous mothers. Third, we find some association between measures of socioeconomic background and children’s Indigenous self-identification net of parental identification. Our findings are relevant to discussions of ethnic and Indigenous identity within families and across generations. Furthermore, because we observe self-identification of biological parents and children, we extend previous work on the classification of multiracial children which typically relies on parents’ classifications of their children.