Thesis advisor: Usha Tummala-Narra / Despite the Asian Indian community being one of the fastest growing populations in the U.S., there continues to be a paucity of research available that examines the specific nuances of the acculturation process within this population, particularly with regards Asian Indian women in the immigrant context within the U.S. Guided by a socioecological framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1994), the aim of this present study was to examine how Asian Indian immigrant women, who migrated to the U.S. between 1966-1985, have engaged in the acculturative process and made sense of their ethnic and gender identity across time. Utilizing a qualitative descriptive methodology, 18 participants (ages 55 to 71 years) were interviewed via a semistructured format. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze the data collected in this investigation and revealed six broad domains related to participants’ experiences as Asian Indian immigrant women living in the U.S. These domains include following: 1) marriage and family; 2) working in the U.S; 3) experiences of gender; 4) challenges to acculturation; 5) cxperience of immigration over time; and 6) coping and resilience. The findings from this study illuminate the ways in which gender is restructured within the immigrant context, the immigrant experience transforms over time, and the psychological impact of the acculturative process among the Asian Indian immigrant women population. Important implications for culturally informed clinical practice and future research directions are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Subsequent to Lower Eocene (ca. 50Ma) collision of the Indian and Asian plates, continental subduction occurred along the N-dipping Main Central Thrust (MCT) of the Himalaya. In western Garhwal, NW India, upper amphibolite facies Vaikrita Group gneisses of the High Himalayan Slab (HHS) were thrust southwards over unmetamorphosed to greenschist facies Garhwal Group quartzites, carbonates and metabasics of the Lesser Himalaya. In the Bhagirathi valley, the MCT forms a ca. 10km thick shear zone composed of mylonitic Munsiari Group augen gneiss, amphibolite and metasediments. Metamorphic grade increases both northwards and with structural height. The MCT zone is bounded to the N by the Vaikrita roof thrust (VT) and by the Munsiari floor thrust (MT) to the S. The VT is a diffuse high-temperature shear zone recognised through a difference in lithology, metamorphic history, and tectonic style between the Vaikrita and Munsiari Groups. The MT is a relatively discrete fault formed at conditions approaching the brittle-ductile transition. N of the MCT zone, the Jhala Normal Fault (JNF) is a ductile to brittle N-dipping extensional shear zone that was responsible for the downthrow of HHS gneisses and Tethyan sediments in response to gravitational instability of the uplifting orogen. Garnet compositional zoning was produced during growth in both the MCT zone and the lower HHS. In the central and upper HHS it resulted from high-temperature homogenization followed by retrogressive re-equilibration. Diffusion studies suggest rapid cooling of the upper HHS garnets may have been caused by crustal thinning across the JNF. The inverted metamorphic sequence is the cumulative result of polyphase metamoiphism. M1 was a post-collisional Barrovian event of garnet to sillimanite grade restricted to the HHS. M2 was contemporaneous with D2 MCT kinematics and was prograde only in the MCT zone and lower HHS possibly as a result of conductive footwall heating. M3 resulted from nearly isothermal decompression of the upper HHS as a consequence of JNF activation. Thermobarometic transects reveal a significant increase in both P and T across the VT with subsequent decreases accompanying structural height in the HHS. Reliable K-Ar (muscovite) cooling ages from a transect through the MCT zone and HHS are progressively younger towards the S. Ages of ca. 22Ma to ca. 8Ma reflect the piggy-back style deformation sequence; disruptions to the younging sequence are interpreted as localised resetting of ages due to out-of-sequence shearing events. Biotite ages commonly suffered from excess argon and were unreliable. An40Ar/39Ar (hornblende) cooling age suggests rocks of the lower MCT zone were not heated above ca. 500°C since the Precambrian. A ca. 20Ma age dates the last high-temperature motion in the upper MCT zone. The decrease in cooling rate obtained from cooling ages for specific mineral blocking temperatures for the upper MCT zone may be hnked to a return to erosion-controlled denudation after JNF extension.

Sexual health is an integral part of the overall well-being of women of color. Information about the sexual health of Asian Indian women who are brought up within the U.S. and the contextual factors which play a role in their views on sexual health is lacking. Even less is known about the experience and impact of navigating two sets of cultural beliefs (i.e., that of their heritage culture and that of the dominant U.S. society) on sexual health development for Asian Indian women raised in the U.S. The proposed study is designed to understand the sexual health perspectives of Asian Indian women raised in the U.S. This study was a qualitative investigation conducted in order to identify how sexual health is conceptualized by Asian Indian women who are exposed to the sexual health values and norms of the mainstream U.S. society and that of their heritage culture. Eleven heterosexual Asian Indian women, of 1.5 and second generation, were interviewed in person and over the phone. During the interview process participants defined their perspectives on sexual health and identified sociocultural factors which played a role in how they conceptualized sexual health. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data. The core phenomenon of this study, referred to as a storyline, revolved around participants struggle to navigate two opposing cultures, their views on sexual health, and the process by which they formulated their perspectives. Consistent with past research on 1.5 and second generation South Asian women, experiences related to sexual health for this sample were impacted by traditional cultural values, the norms of mainstream society, and participants' individual momentum.

No description available.

Parental participation supports students' academic success and increases positive peer interactions. Prior to the 1980s, parental participation was viewed as a unidimensional construct; however, it has since been understood as a multidimensional one. Studies from Epstein have demonstrated that culture, community, and family structures are some of the many factors that affect parental participation. In addition, Huntsinger and Jose have demonstrated that Asian-American parents participate in their children's education differently than do European Americans, yet research has not examined the specificities of South-Asian Americans' (SAAs) and Asian-Indian Americans' (AIAs) parental involvement. There are 6 recognized methods that parents can use to participate in their child's education. Assuming that the methods of participation used by parents can affect their children's academic performance and social development, the purpose of this study was to examine these methods of parental participation with respect to AIAs and SAAs. Using Epstein's questionnaire, 308 AIA/SAA parents were recruited who had a child born in the United States and who was attending a U.S. school between kindergarten and Grade 2 at the time of the study. MANOVA and ANOVA tests were used to calculate whether a significant difference existed amongst the 6 methods of parental participation, based on the gender of the parent or the gender of the child. There was no significant preference among the 6 methods of parental participation, nor was any difference found that related to the gender of the child. However, the results indicated that mothers were more involved than fathers in their child's education, although there was no preference among the 6 methods. Given the lack of clear direction emergent in these findings, implications for future research to further the understanding of parental participation of SAA/AIA are discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Richard Goe / Asian-Indians represent an important component of the professional and ‘high-tech’ workers in the U.S. Research on this population has found that majority of these workers are temporary workers working on a contractual jobs. Further, it is not unusual for Indian immigrant workers to get married and have children while in the U.S. As such, they must learn to negotiate the U.S. cultural terrain in both their place of work and home life. This provides the potential that they will become transnational by developing identities and engaging in cultural and social practices from two different nations, India and the U.S. This dissertation investigates the nature and extent of transnational practices adopted by high-tech Indian workers employed by U.S. firms on a temporary work visa. In summary, the purpose of this research is to explore and describe the prevalence and practice of transnationalism among Indian high-tech workers employed by U.S. firms on a temporary work visa and its impact on their lives.  The study uses a mixed-methods research (Ivankova, Creswell and Stick, 2007), where quantitative survey and qualitative data collection are used in single study to understand the stated research problem. Also, as there is no formal list of Indian IT professionals working in the U.S. at contractual jobs, the data collection will be carried out through the non-random chain-referral sampling technique. A detailed survey and personal interview will be used to measure various micro aspects of these workers' lives including consumption patterns, recreational choices, socialization, cultural beliefs and family dynamics. The study reveals that the temporary stay of these professionals in the U.S. along with their families necessitates day-to-day negotiations between two cultures in terms of their food, clothing, recreation, and daily activities creating a transnational life style for these young professionals. The responses reflect the inner struggle of these professionals between their long-term goals of settling in India with their families and the current material life in a far-away land of opportunity. On one hand, the dualism of living in the U.S. as an Indian is demonstrated in this study by the convergence of the disparate elements of both aspects of their lives, work, incomes and remittances; on other hand, family, social life, religion, consumption patterns, and recreation activities provide the glimpse of a dual life. All of these cultural and social practices can be considered as the combination of transnationalism from ‘above’ and ‘below’ as noted by Smith and Guarnizo (1998). Transnational activities at the work place, which is forced by the work culture of the MNCs that employ them, can be considered as ‘transnationalism from above’. Simultaneously, being bi-lingual at home, cooking and eating Indian and Western food, socializing with Indian and American friends outside work, and all those cultural activities they perform on a day-to-day basis, indicates ‘transnationalism from below’. Overall, through this study, I have described important aspects of the transnational lives of Indian IT professionals, who try to maintain a fine balance between faster assimilation of American culture which might help them at the work place while simultaneously retaining much of their ‘Indian-ness’ so that going back to India never poses a problem when their visa expires. In a way, the lives of this particular group of professionals can be viewed as those of temporary-enclave residential workers.

Parental participation supports students' academic success and increases positive peer interactions. Prior to the 1980s, parental participation was viewed as a unidimensional construct; however, it has since been understood as a multidimensional one. Studies from Epstein have demonstrated that culture, community, and family structures are some of the many factors that affect parental participation. In addition, Huntsinger and Jose have demonstrated that Asian-American parents participate in their children's education differently than do European Americans, yet research has not examined the specificities of South-Asian Americans' (SAAs) and Asian-Indian Americans' (AIAs) parental involvement. There are 6 recognized methods that parents can use to participate in their child's education. Assuming that the methods of participation used by parents can affect their children's academic performance and social development, the purpose of this study was to examine these methods of parental participation with respect to AIAs and SAAs. Using Epstein's questionnaire, 308 AIA/SAA parents were recruited who had a child born in the United States and who was attending a U.S. school between kindergarten and Grade 2 at the time of the study. MANOVA and ANOVA tests were used to calculate whether a significant difference existed amongst the 6 methods of parental participation, based on the gender of the parent or the gender of the child. There was no significant preference among the 6 methods of parental participation, nor was any difference found that related to the gender of the child. However, the results indicated that mothers were more involved than fathers in their child's education, although there was no preference among the 6 methods. Given the lack of clear direction emergent in these findings, implications for future research to further the understanding of parental participation of SAA/AIA are discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

The United States is home to nearly three million Asian Indians. The difference in Asian Indian and American cultures creates a need for Asian Indians to acculturate, upon migration to the U.S. It has been theorized that acculturation becomes harder when the two cultures of contact are dissimilar. Particularly, immigrant women and children have been found to be more vulnerable than men to acculturative stress, where acculturative stress is defined as the psychological impact of adaptation to a new culture. Hence, this study focuses on acculturation of Asian Indian women and specifically on factors influencing their acculturation. Research findings from this study on acculturation of Asian Indian women provide information, useful for public policy makers. They have been utilized to develop a program (used by settlement service providers) designed specifically to facilitate acculturation of Asian Indian women in the U.S. A two-dimensional model developed by J.W. Berry, a prominent researcher in the field of acculturation, is employed to classify the acculturation process of Asian Indian women who were part of this study. Based on Berry’s model, the acculturation process of an immigrant can be described by one of the following four strategies: 1) Assimilation, 2) Integration, 3) Separation, or 4) Marginalization. According to Berry, the Integration strategy is considered the most effective acculturation strategy in terms of long-term health and wellbeing of the individual. This study employed a cross-sectional design, using quantitative methods for data analysis. Data were collected by means of a web-based acculturation survey that was developed as part of the study. Data analysis indicated that a majority of the Asian Indian women adopted the Integration strategy. A conceptual model was developed and multivariate analyses were conducted to examine the key acculturation factors that influenced Asian Indian women using the Integration strategy. These identified key factors helped to understand the cultural adaptation of Asian Indian women.