The purpose of this thesis is to show the historical discrepancies in literacy skills of deaf students in the United States and how they correlate to language philosophies and the resulting educational practices. These philosophies are described chronologically beginning with the first formal educational institution, in 1817, followed by the Oralism Movement, the philosophy of Total Communication, and the Bilingual-Bicultural Approach. All three language approaches can be seen today in schools for the deaf across America, but only the bilingual-bicultural approach builds a foundation in a natural L1 (American Sign Language) in an effort to develop an L2 (English).

Att veta vem man är i en värld fylld av normer och regler kan vara en kamp för många. Vad identitet betyder beror på vem som tillfråggas vilket även skiner ljus på den komplexitet som existerar kring detta ämne. Denna undersökning utfördes i syftet att komma närmare upplevelsen av identitetsskapande hos unga svenskfödda individer med utländsk bakgrund. Åtta intervjuer genomfördes med unga individer mellan 20-24 år. En tematisk analys gav fyra teman som visade att upplevelsen av identitetsskapande hos unga svenskfödda individer med bikulturell identitet differentierar och att det finns både för- och nackdelar. I de svårigheter som representerades förekom även en positiv upplevelse av stolthet, och i de möjligheter som representerades förekom även en synlig kamp. Resultatet tydde på att bikulturella individer behöver känna sig accepterade och få synas som en individ utöver den bikulturella identiteten.

Traditionally the empirical study of acculturation has focused on the integration, preservation, or abandonment of one's ethnic heritage in relation to the host culture. This study attempted to broaden the concept of the acculturation process by examining the interaction between an immigrant's religious identity and the host culture. It was hypothesized that for Muslims living in America the integration of one's Islamic and American identities, as compared to level of integration between one?s ethnic heritage and American identities, would provide unique value in predicting the level of acculturation stress, depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Identity integration between Islamic and American identities was found to correlate with decreased acculturation stress, decreased depressive symptoms and increased life satisfaction and in some instances provided significant predictive value when compared to only an assessment of bicultural integration. Implications of this and other findings were explored.

The research questions of this study explore, first, the general patterns of Internet access and engagement among Korean immigrant adolescents, and second, the relationships between the adolescents’ culture-specific online activities and their (a) Korean cultural orientation, (b) American cultural orientation, and (c) bicultural competence. The separate examinations of Korean and American cultural orientations and the consideration of bicultural competence are based on the bicultural model to immigrant’s cross-cultural adjustment, which asserts that cultural orientations to the host and home countries develop and operate independently. Both types of cultural orientation are considered to be multidimensional, involving five distinct processes: cultural identity, knowledge of cultural values and norms, knowledge of popular culture, language proficiency, and cultural social support. Finally, a number of different culture-specific online activities—i.e., email, social networking, entertainment media, and information seeking activities performed on both Korean-language and English-language websites—are considered based on the assumption that different activities will engage different types and levels of cultural orientations and bicultural competence. The research questions are addressed by analyses of data collected through a quantitative survey of 168 Korean immigrant teenagers residing in Texas. The findings of this study demonstrate that these young Korean immigrants are privileged and active users of the Internet. Their online engagement is influenced by common youth-oriented interests as well as by their cultural orientations toward Korean and American cultures. Specifically, different types of culture-specific online activities invoke different aspects of the adolescents’ Korean and American orientations. In particular, the multiple dimensions of American (vs. Korean) orientation are more commonly associated with culture-specific online activities in general, negatively predicting Korean-website activities while positively predicting English-website activities. Of the multiple dimensions, knowledge of popular culture is most commonly associated with culture-specific online activities, while language proficiency is least associated. Further, levels of engagement with culture-specific online activities differ across groups of differing levels of bicultural competence. Particularly, individuals who are biculturally competent across multiple cultural orientation dimensions experience more engaged and diverse online experiences within English-language websites. This study offers theoretical and methodological implications for research on youth and online media and research on immigrants’ cross-cultural adjustment. / text

Individuals of Mexican descent have resided in the United States for more than a century and a half and during that time have experienced varying degrees of acceptance. As American society has generally adopted the view that "foreigners" should assimilate to mainstream American culture, many individuals of Mexican descent have faced demands to distance themselves from their culture in order to adopt the behaviors and values consistent with White American culture. While many ethnic groups may have faced similar circumstances, the experiences of individuals of Mexican descent may differ from those of others due to the close proximity of Mexico to the United States and the constant flow of Mexican immigrants, which together may contribute to their retention of their native culture. As individuals of Mexican descent experience greater contact with their native and White American culture, particularly while in pursuit in success, it becomes necessary to understand what pressures individuals experience when among their White American and same-ethnicity peers. Furthermore, it is necessary to examine how they negotiate their bicultural contexts in response to the pressures they face. Using a sample of university student who were of Mexican descent, this study employed qualitative methods and select measures to explore their perceptions of pressures faced and adaptive strategies utilized when among their White American and same-ethnicity peers. The results from the present study indicated that the participants believed their culture continues to be seen as inferior and is unaccepted by White Americans. As a result of their beliefs, which were reinforced by their minority status, stereotypes, and intergroup experiences, many reported experiencing distress when among their White peers. Among their same-ethnicity peers, many reported experiencing pressure to remain connected to their culture. Despite different definitions of what remaining connected meant, the most commonly referenced criterion included being fluent in Spanish and having to overcome struggles. In order to negotiate their bicultural settings, the majority of the participants utilized an adaptive approach to their bicultural contexts that allowed them the flexibility to draw from both cultures in a manner that was consistent with their values, beliefs, and cultural identity. / text

Using a strength-based paradigm, this study explored resilience factors (i.e. ethnic identity, familismo, and spirituality) associated with a continuum of eating disorder (ED) and obesity risk variables, depression, anxiety, and acculturation among Latina women. Two models predicting psychological distress and ED outcomes were tested using cross-sectional data (N= 262) from an internet-based survey. Results indicated that cultural resilience factors were associated with less psychological distress, fewer ED symptoms, and less ED risk. Psychological distress partially mediated the relationship between cultural resilience and ED symptoms and risk, indicating the possibility of heightened ED risk when cultural resilience is low and psychological distress is high. Acculturation to U.S. mainstream culture was not associated with cultural resilience or negative outcomes; rather, biculturalism, or successful negotiation of both cultures, appeared to facilitate use of cultural practices and values that protect Latinas from negative eating behaviors and psychological outcomes. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. / 2015-10-10

Historicamente, a escolarização dos surdos é um ponto amplo de discussão que tem sido marcado pela singularidade linguística desses sujeitos. Caracterizadas por uma transição de diferentes filosofias educacionais nas últimas três décadas e organizadas pelas políticas públicas de inclusão, as ofertas educativas foram diversificadas, conferindo vivências múltiplas no espaço escolar. A instituição escolar é lócus da constituição subjetiva dos surdos, por ser o núcleo social onde a maioria deles tem contato com seus pares e com a língua de sinais, uma vez que 95% dos surdos são provenientes de famílias ouvintes. É na escola que a criança surda acessa, de forma mais elaborada, elementos culturais e simbólicos. Reconhecendo essa condição, o presente estudo tem como temática o processo de escolarização dos surdos, especificamente, as relações entre escolarização e constituição bicultural. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi compreender as narrativas dos surdos sobre seus processos de escolarização, evidenciando como estas se articulam às políticas e filosofias educacionais em prol daquele público e como a vida na escola se relaciona aos processos formativos biculturais. Os sujeitos participantes da pesquisa são surdos que se comunicam pela língua de sinais e que estão em fase de conclusão ou concluíram recentemente a educação básica. O trabalho de campo foi realizado em uma escola pública de Ensino Médio do Distrito Federal, por meio de discussões em um grupo focal. Os encontros foram desenvolvidos por uma equipe multidisciplinar, formada por uma pedagoga (pesquisadora deste trabalho), uma psicóloga e dois intérpretes – um para cada semestre do trabalho de campo. Foram realizados 17 encontros semanais durante o segundo semestre de 2012 e o primeiro de 2013, cada um com duração média de uma hora e meia. Os dados foram videogravados e transcritos integralmente para análise. Sob o enfoque microgenético, foram estruturados dois eixos de análise: o eixo A – As narrativas sobre as trajetórias escolares dos surdos, que foi subdividido em A1 – O que narra o surdo sobre sua trajetória escolar e A2 – As especificidades da inclusão: a língua, o intérprete e a pedagogia da imagem; e o eixo B – Os impactos da vida na escola para o desenvolvimento bicultural. Os resultados do estudo apontam que as trajetórias escolares foram diversificadas, englobando as principais mudanças das filosofias educacionais e das políticas públicas. Diante dessas experiências, as especificidades da constituição bicultural foram marginalizadas na escola. Porém, a presença da língua de sinais e o convívio com outros surdos foram aspectos fundamentais na vida escolar dos sujeitos da pesquisa.

The overarching objective of the thesis was to better understand how second generation (G2) East and Southeast Asian emerging adult immigrants make sense of their bicultural identity integration (BII), and in turn experience well-being. Moreover, a domain-specific approach was adopted with the premise that an individual could experience a great deal of well-being in one context (e.g., at home) while encountering significant difficulties in adjustment in another (e.g., in the public sphere). To achieve this, two studies were completed as part of the thesis. In the first study, we focused on family domain adjustment and well-being. In particular, we were interested how parental autonomy support (proxy for individualism) and family allocentrism (proxy for collectivism) were related to participants’ parent-child relationship satisfaction, parent-child relationship conflict, and family-domain subjective well-being. We were also interested in how BII may explain the above relationships through mediation pathways. In the second study, the focus shifted towards community-domain adjustment. Research questions were formulated around the relationships between cultural socialization (independent variable [IV] 1), experiences with microaggressions (IV 2), and sense of belonging to heritage cultural community (dependent variable [DV] 1) and mainstream Canadian community (DV 2). Again, BII was included in the model to determine its ability to explain the above pathways. The results from study 1 revealed that parental autonomy support was positively related to family domain-specific well-being for all participants. Family allocentrism was linked with parent-child relationship satisfaction, but only for participants who had moved away from parents. BII appeared to partially explain the relationship between family allocentrism and parent-child conflict. The results from study 2 revealed that co-ethnic peer cultural socialization towards East and Southeast Asian culture had a positive relationship with participants’ sense of belonging to their heritage community. Meanwhile, parental and Euro-Canadian peer cultural socialization towards Canadian culture had positive relationships with participants’ sense of belonging to the dominant Canadian community. Not surprisingly, microaggressions were negatively linked with participants’ sense of belonging to heritage and Canadian communities. The results from the mediation model again suggested that BII was able to partially explain the link between microaggressions and sense of belonging to heritage and dominant communities. Moreover, BII also appeared to be able to explain some of the relationships between cultural socialization and participants’ sense of belonging. Taken together, the findings from the two studies shed light on how BII may subtly influence well-being differently across the home and community spheres, reinforcing the need to look at BII from a situated approach. Implications for clinicians on how to best support G2 East and Southeast Asian emerging adult immigrants navigating their bicultural identity and experience well-being are discussed.

Guided by the framework of bicultural identity integration (BII), a conceptual model depicting the direct and indirect effects of BII, cognitive flexibility, affect regulation, and coping on psychological wellbeing indicators (i.e., life satisfaction, depression) of adult children of immigrants (ACI) in the U.S. was developed. It was hypothesized that greater BII would contribute to greater cognitive flexibility and affect regulation, which would be associated with more utilization of adaptive coping strategies and greater psychological wellbeing. A total of 240 young ACI from across the U.S. completed the online research questionnaire that measured all variables of interest. Results from structural equation modeling analyses showed adequate model fit with the data. Findings provided support to the indirect effects of BII factors on wellbeing through affect regulation, however, the indirect effect paths are more complicated than what were hypothesized originally. Specifically, higher levels of identity harmony and identity blendedness contributed to more difficulties in emotion regulation, and subsequently, poorer wellbeing. Additionally, both cultural identity harmony and identity blendedness contributed to greater levels of cultural and relational maintenance strategies (i.e., avoidance, forbearance) in the context of intergenerational conflict through affect regulation, but not through cognitive flexibility. Notably, the latent variable of cultural coping strategies retained in the final model was not correlated with wellbeing. Findings are discussed from the BII framework and the sociological context of ACI in the U.S. Limitations, future directions, and implications for counseling, diversity, and advocacy issues are outlined.

A qualitative study, using an oral history method was completed. Seven participants (2 men, 5 women) of Gullah descent from the St. Helena's Island and Charleston, South Carolina area were extensively interviewed. Symbolic interactionism provided the theoretical framework for the study. Findings included the recognition of the Gullah as a unique cultural group and the possible effects of slavery on identity formation for individuals as well as the Gullah community. Striking differences in physical space utilization between Gullah and non-Gullah residents were suggested. The presence of conflict between African and European beliefs and practices were seen in areas such as religious traditions, child rearing, and language. The pervasive effect of racism on identity and its relationship to biculturalism was discussed. Biculturalism appeared to be strongly related to survival as well as being an integral part of the participants' identities. / Ph. D.