A second generation South Asian can be faced with contrasting and conflicting
cultures which can impact the formation of a healthy ethnic identity. The present
study investigated what facilitated and hindered a South Asian's adolescent
experience of becoming bicultural. Flanagan's (1954) Critical Incident Technique was
used in interviewing 8 adult participants, including 5 females and 3 males, aged 20 to
26 years of age. The results identified 88 critical incidents, forming 10 helping
categories and 4 hindering categories. The 10 Helping categories were: (1) Cross
Cultural Friendships, (2) Speaking both Punjabi and English, (3) Personal Attributes,
(4) Shared Experiences with Peers in the 'Same Boat', (5) Family Support and
Influence, (6) Involvement in Recreational, Cultural and Religious Community
Activities, (7) Visiting India, (8) High School Experience, (9) University Education
and (10) Acceptance of Parent's and / or Grandparent's Views. The Hindering
Categories were: (1) Parental and / or Familial Expectations, (2) Media Influence /
Societal Expectations, (3) Personal Conflict of Cultural Values and (4) Experiencing
Racism. The categories were found to be reliable and valid through procedures such
as exhaustiveness, independent raters, co-researcher's cross checking, participation
rate and theoretical agreement. The resulting categories provide a list of
comprehensive factors that can facilitate and hinder an individual's process towards
developing a bicultural identity. The findings are discussed in relation to implications
for counselling theory and practice, and future research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11964 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Baines, Anil |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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