ABSTRACT
Bernal and Knight and their colleagues' model of ethnic identity described four dimensions of Mexican American children's early ethnic identifications: ethnic self-identification, ethnic preferences, ethnic behaviors, and ethnic knowledge. First, ethnic self-identification refers to Mexican American children's ability to accurately identify their own ethnicity by selecting the relevant ethnic labels, and their research indicated that Mexican American children first learn to accurately identify. Second, Bernal and colleagues described Mexican American children's social preferences for other Mexican Americans as part of their ethnic identification. They suggested that the stronger preference for other Mexican Americans the stronger the child's ethnic identity. Ethnic behaviors, the third component of Bernal et al'.s model, are behaviors associated with Mexican American children's performance of cultural activities. The final and fourth component of Bernal et al'.s model, ethnic knowledge, is children's acquisition of knowledge of which cultural and social patterns are associated with Mexican Americans and that are different from the cultural and social patterns of Anglos.
