Question

how does ethnicity and race influence identity formation in children and adolescents, and how they do so in different ways. how ethnicity and race should be addressed with children and adolescents, example from a setting (home, school, community,

Answer 1

Identity formation is an essential aspect of development in a child's life. This differed with race and ethnicity as the standards of conventional beauty are eurocentric. This implies that in order for one to be societally accepted and look attractive, their features must fit a certain form, the form which is of a standard western caucasian.

This is further ingrained in children by popular media showcasing individuals with eurocentric features as attractive and successful, pushing the narrative that in order to get anywhere one needs to look like this and any features that deviate from the same will be looked down upn.

This impacts children as they start to look at their hair, their skin colour, their eye colours, the shape of their nose, the way they speak and compare it with the standard that is not only popularised but also pushed by their elders and peers. CHildren with features that don't fit the eurocentric standard are often shamed to the point that they make take steps to changing how they look and act. This is often a struggle as adolescents then have issues with identity formation as they don't know who they are or who they want to be.

A good way to address these issues would be to emphasis the beauty in differences and how humans vary in a lot of ways rather than showcasing one type of individual. THis can be done by having more inclusive story books, curriculum in school as well as shows with better representation of individuals of all sorts.