Interracial Dating and Endogamy among Mixed-Race Youth in the United States

Krystale Littlejohn, Stanford University

Research shows that multiracial individuals are more likely than their single-race counterparts to intermarry with and cohabit with whites. However, little is known regarding why this is the case. While some researchers speculate that biracial Asian-white and American-Indian-white people are more likely to marry whites because they themselves may primarily identify as white, this hypothesis has not yet been tested. The present study tests the hypothesis that multiracial partnerships are indeed reflective of endogamous dating practices using data from the first wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Preliminary results provide support for this hypothesis.