| Recent U.S. Census statistics indicate that the Vietnamese American population is growing at a tremendous rate (U.S. Bureau, 2000). Second generation Vietnamese Americans who were born in the United States or came to the U.S. before age 5 represent the group with the greatest growth, with adolescents comprising a large percentage of the Vietnamese American youth population. Thus, it is important to develop a better understanding of the experiences of Vietnamese American adolescents, particularly given the relatively limited psychological research examining the impacts of social interactions among Vietnamese American youth. This study explored how second generation Vietnamese American adolescents' racial identity and ethnic identity were affected by their relationships with racialized peer groups.;A constructivistic grounded theory methodology was utilized and resulted in conceptual models that illustrated how social interactions with various racialized peer groups impacted second generation Vietnamese American adolescents' racial identity and ethnic identity development. Twenty-four qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 second-generation Vietnamese American males (age 18 to25) who described coming from diverse social contexts (e.g., socially isolated; primarily non-Asian, non-Vietnamese; racially/ethnically diverse). A model was developed for each social context. Participants reported how peer social interactions related to the ways in which racial and ethnic peer groups were formed, as well as, how the boundaries of certain peer groups resulted in their inclusion or exclusion. Racial and ethnic identity development for Vietnamese adolescent males emerged as a complex and dynamic process that was significantly affected by the nature and variation of social interactions they experienced and/or did not experience within specific social context groups with peers from different racial and ethnic groups. Racial identity was more directly related to social interactions with racialized peer groups, whereas ethnic identity was impacted more by interactions with specific ethnic peer groups and/or lack of social interactions with Vietnamese peers. Ethnic identity in Vietnamese American youth was described as more multi-layered than proposed in previous models of ethnic identity development. Specifically, findings lend support for the re-conceptualization of ethnic identity as both pan-ethnic Asian as well as ethnic-group specific ethnicity. |
