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In the years between 1970 and 2000, the rate of interracial marriage increased seven times. Currently, 6.4 percent of all children in the U.S. live under the care of interracial married couples. Sociologists at Rice University found that the race of the father and the number of times a father and child interacted in a month strongly affected the children’s racial identity. Especially in cases where the father was African-American, their children “were three times more likely to indicate an exact match to their father’s [race] and almost eight times more likely to include their father’s race in their own racial identity,” reported sociologist Holly Heard. The effect of spending time with the father was very strong, with each instance in a month corresponding to a 34 percent increase in the likelihood of selecting the father’s race as their own identity. There was also a 36 percent increase in probability that the children will include the race of their father in identifying the races to which they themselves belong.

Source: Rice University, “In mixed race couples, fathers profoundly influence their children’s racial identifications,” Research@Rice, September 15, 2006, http://www.explore.rice.edu/explore/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=8799