This study examined the bicultural adjustment of Ramallah-American youth who are living in Jacksonville, Florida. The primary aim was to assess the extent to which biculturalism and an ethnic identity was problematic for the youth as they participated in the ethnic atmosphere of the home and community and the mainstream atmosphere of the school. Cultural conflict, where present, and the adaptive behaviors, or coping strategies used by the youth to manage this conflict, are described and analyzed. / Ethnographic research techniques were used to gather the information on which the findings are based. Interviews were conducted with 15 males and 19 females, between 13 to 19 years old, and direct observations of their behavior with other community members were made. Unstructured interviews with and observations of other adolescent and adult members of the community and conversations with school officials provided supplemental information. A discussion of essays written by Ramallah-American youth in other cities was included to further validate the findings. / It was determined that, while conflict was indeed present in the youths' experiences, many of them had acquired an array of mechanisms for dealing with the dissonance and were adept at alternating between both cultural orientations with minimal anxiety. The degree of parents' and clans' acculturation of contemporary mainstream values was judged to be a determinant of adolescent adjustment. Evidence of identity conflict was suggested in individual instances where the parents and clan reacted with greater anxiety to the rapid acculturative change and resisted mainstream influences. Those youth who were afforded more outlets for social expression, either within the ethnic community or outside of it, presented the image of being more confident in their abilities and tolerant of the ethnic lifestyle than those who were overprotected by their families and restricted in their activities with peer groups. / There was no evidence to suggest that the demands of membership in the Ramallah ethnic community caused the adolescents to require special attention in school. The Ramallah-American adolescents in Jacksonville had full access to mainstream educational services, although some individuals did not utilize them fully because of traditional family behavior patterns and values. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-02, Section: A, page: 0448. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75770 |
| Contributors | KAZALEH, FADWA ANN., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 245 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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