Browsing by Subject "identity development"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Anti-Asian Racism and the Critical Identity Development of Asian American College Students During COVID-19
    (2024-05) Boey, Leslie
    Asian Americans have long been targeted and blamed for problems in social, political, and educational realms. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this racial bigotry contributed to hostile environments for Asian American college students. While previous research has discussed the negative impacts of racism on this population, my study explores how Asian American students understood themselves in relation to racism. Specifically, I investigate how racial identity is shaped by social relationships, college environments, and sociopolitical contexts. With an anti-oppressive approach in mind, I used narrative inquiry guided by Museus and Iftikar’s (2013) Asian Critical Theory to center students’ lived experiences and voices throughout this research. Twelve Asian American college students from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities participated in two interviews, which were used as primary data sources for this study. The findings are presented in two components—written student narratives and thematic results—that portray the diversity and commonalities among participants’ racial identity journeys during the early 2020s. These stories and thematic findings demonstrate Asian American college students’ intimate experiences of race and identity that are interconnected with multiple dimensions of oppression in students’ lives. This study reveals that Asian American college students negotiated their racial identities through dimensions of language, hypervisibility, race-based education, social relationships, and cross-racial dynamics. The findings of this research affirm the need to deeply recognize Asian Americans’ racial experiences, especially as it pertains to identity labels, racial violence, and tensions with the model minority myth. From these findings, I recommend that researchers, professionals, students, and non-academics alike embrace the power of storytelling in their lives and work to make Asian Americans visible in the conversation on race.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Effects of Racial and Ethnic Socialization on Parent-Child Relationships in Biracial Households
    (2019-04) Doto, Zoey, J; Syed, Moin Ph. D.
    Identity development is heavily impacted by the provision of racial and/or ethnic socialization from one’s parents. For biracial individuals, it is possible to be exposed to multiple types of racial and/or ethnic socialization and learning how to balance these different identities can be challenging. Using the emergent design of grounded theory with race/ethnicity being a primary level of importance, the current study seeks to understand reasons for parents choosing to expose their child to different types of racial and/or ethnic socialization and how this impacts their relationship with the child. Interviews with ten self-identifying biracial young adults were conducted and responses were analyzed, revealing that reasons for provision of socializations were impacted by historical events, parental lived experiences, and phenotypic presentation of the child. Quotes are based on personal experiences of participants and do not speak for general populations. Study limitations are noted and suggestions for future research are listed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Processes of Identity Integration: An Examination of Sports & Ethnic Identities
    (2016-09) Walker, Lovey
    Erikson’s (1968) theory on identity development emphasizes that a coherent sense of self contributes to positive adjustment and psychological well-being. These experiences of coherence and positive adjustment are believed to partly come from the integration of a person’s multiple identity domains, such as religious beliefs, sexual identity, or a professional career. Yet, there have been few studies that fully account for this process of integration across multiple identity domains. Therefore, the goals of this study were to 1) empirically examine the different ways people experience multiple identity domains and 2) explore how these identity experiences are related to adjustment. This study focused on two specific domains of identity—ethnicity and sports—among an ethnically diverse sample of college students (N= 195). The study was conducted using an embedded mixed-methods design, which relied on both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Participants’ reported identity experiences concerning the significance, relatedness, and integration of the two domains (qualitative) were linked to psychological, emotional, and academic outcomes (quantitative). Results from these analyses will be discussed and framed around some of the potential differences Students of Color and White students might have concerning their identity experiences. Implications for future research on identity development will also be discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Understanding How Undergraduate Sexual-Minority Men Make Meaning of Their Masculine Identities Within the Context of the College Experience
    (2021-05) Grewe, Michael
    Dominant systems of White masculinity—or attitudes, behaviors, and ideologies rooted in White masculine dominance alongside homophobia, misogyny, and racism—within higher education impact how students frame and understand their identities and experiences during their undergraduate careers. For sexual-minority men and transmasculine individuals, these dominant systems pose significant challenges around creating a sense of belonging, finding community, dealing with microaggressions, and maintaining safety. Moreover, little is known around how White masculinity impacts sexual-minority undergraduate students’ discernment of their masculine identity. This study explores how sexual-minority men and transmasculine individuals make meaning of their masculine identity within the context of their experiences at a set of undergraduate postsecondary institutions in Minnesota. Utilizing a queer phenomenological research design, 19 participants from across the state were interviewed to understand how they have oriented themselves toward hegemonic masculinity, how and why that orientation has taken place, and how they have resisted conforming to those hegemonic standards. Conducting a critical thematic analysis on the transcripts, four major themes were found: (a) participants had an understanding of foundational elements of hegemonic masculinity upon matriculation; (b) participants felt oriented toward performing hegemonic masculinity on their campuses at varying times, though not without conflict; (c) participants navigated supports and safety in relation to hegemonic masculinity on their campuses; and (d) participants found agency and a desire to resist hegemonic masculine norms on their campuses. These findings provide student affairs practitioners and faculty some suggested avenues for policymaking, cocurricular programming, and curricular offerings to support sexual-minority students in their masculine identity development and to ameliorate the negative impacts of White masculinity. These findings also offer additional opportunities to explore these topics within future research studies.