A study of more than 400 children of first-generation immigrants is among the first longitudinal studies to demonstrate that one's ethnic identity forms prior to adolescence.

Furthermore, the three-year study found that a child's positive sense of ethnic identity is associated with the desire to socialize with children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Cynthia Garcia Coll, professor of education, and Amy Marks, both affiliated with Brown University's Center for the Study of Human Development, conducted the research with colleagues from Howard University and University of Illinois--Chicago.

The sample included two groups of children in first and fourth grades from first-generation Cambodian, Dominican and Portuguese families in Providence and East Providence, R.I. Researchers assessed the children's emerging ethnic identities through a label selection procedure that involved the children selecting labels that described themselves.

Each child was also asked a series of questions about their degree of ethnic pride, the centrality of their ethnic identity, and which label makes them the happiest.

During years two and three of the study, children were asked about their preferences for socializing with children of their own and other ethnicities and racial groups.

Researchers measured each child's social preference for the "ingroup" and a social preference for the "outgroup."

For all children, older age was associated with greater preferences to play with children of other ethnic groups.

"What we found at this early age is that children want to play with peers from their own ethnic backgrounds and peers from other backgrounds as well," said Marks, adjunct assistant professor of human development at Brown's Center for the Study of Human Development.