Ethnic identification from pre-birth to early adolescence: longitudinal patterns and methodological considerations

August 11, 2025

Summary

Ethnicity is a dynamic construct that can change over an individual’s lifetime. This study examines ethnic identification from pre-birth to early adolescence in a New Zealand cohort, finding significant variation depending on the classification method used. The proportion of individuals with stable ethnic identification across five data waves ranged from 39% to 83%. These findings underscore the need for researchers to treat ethnicity as a time-varying variable and to carefully consider their classification decisions.