The Experience of Ethnic and Racial Group Membership Among Immigrant-Origin Adolescents

Participants

Participants included 64 adolescents (35 girls and 29 boys) at an urban high school located in an urban area of Northeastern United States, with ages ranging from14 to 20 years (M = 15.58, SD = 1.39) and grade levels spanning 9th through 12th grades (9th: n = 24; 10th: n = 26; 11th: n = 8; 12th: n = 6). The city in which participants resided is racially, ethnically, and economically diverse and over 60% of the student body at the high school identifies as racial minorities. The racial diversity of the study body contrasts with a relatively less diverse teaching staff. Group interviews were completed with three sets of Asian American adolescents (n = 19), three sets of Afro-Caribbean (Haitian American) adolescents (n = 18), three sets of Latino/a American adolescents (n = 17), and two sets South Asian American adolescents (n = 10). We note that participants’ racial and ethnic labels reported in our description of methods and results in this manuscript are self-selected by the participants. Forty-four adolescents were born outside of the United States and 20 were born in the United States. Of the participants who provided information on their age of immigration to the United States, 18 immigrated before the age of 11, and 15 immigrated between the ages of 11 and 18 years. The countries of origin of the participants and/or their parents spanned regions in East and Southeast Asia (China, Vietnam, Cambodia), Caribbean (Haiti), Latin America (Guatemala, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras), and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal).

Group Interview

In the present study, we aimed to closely examine adolescents’ accounts of their experiences of being racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents across multiple contexts (e.g., home, community, school). Qualitative methods focus on revealing individual experiences within specific contexts, and bring voice, through personal narratives, to participants’ experiences and the ways in which participants construct meanings of these experiences (Li, 2009). This approach is well suited to minority youth, as personal narratives provide a lens through which positions of marginality can be understood rather than silenced. Group interviews have been used successfully in previous studies with immigrants, allowing for participants to find voice through collective storytelling, and for researchers to observe commonalities and variations in perspectives across racial and cultural groups among immigrant-origin populations (Ponterotto, 2010). Semistructured group interviews have the advantage of providing an opportunity for participants to reflect on their own views and those of others, to respond to each other, collaborate on developing shared perspectives, and to mitigate any potential effects of an interviewer’s presence (Crockett, Brown, Iturbide, Russell, & Wilkinson-Lee, 2009; Smithson, 2008).

The present study followed the group interview guidelines suggested by Krueger and Casey (2000). Each group of participants met twice (once a week across 2 consecutive weeks) to participate in the group interview. The number of participants in each group ranged from 4 to 8. Fifty-eight participants completed both meetings of the group interview. Six participants (3 Asian, 1 South Asian, 1 Haitian, and 1 Latino/a) were unable to complete the second meeting of their respective group interview due to scheduling conflicts or illness/absence from school. Each group interview was conducted by the first author, second author, or one of six graduate student assistants, all of whom were trained in conducting the interviews and moderating group discussions. All of the interviewers are female, and their racial and ethnic backgrounds are diverse, including Indian American (n = 2), Sri Lankan American (n = 1), Chinese (n = 1), African American (n = 1), and White, European American (n = 3). Although it would be ideal for the race and ethnicity of the interviewer to match those of the participants (Crockett et al., 2009; Krueger & Casey, 2000), the present study included adolescents from four broad racial backgrounds and a number of different ethnicities, and it was not possible to match the race and ethnicity of the interviewers and the participants in all of the groups. Each group interview, which lasted approximately 40 to 60 minutes in length, was audio-recorded and later transcribed verbatim by the authors and graduate research assistants.

Recruitment

In collaboration with the principal and the director of guidance of the high school, students who identified as racial minorities and immigrant-origin with ancestry in Asia, Caribbean, Latin America, or South Asia were invited to participate in the study. We recruited participants who identified with ancestry in these geographic regions, because we were interested in the experiences of immigrant-origin adolescents who are racial minorities in the United States. In addition, youth with ancestry in these regions represent the fastest growing segment of the immigrant population in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). We collaborated with the director of guidance to identify self-reported regions of ancestry and racial backgrounds of immigrant-origin students enrolled in the school. As reported by students in school demographic records, these regions of ancestry included Asia, Caribbean, Latin America, and South Asia, and racial backgrounds included Asian, Afro-Caribbean, Latino/a, and South Asian.

Students who identified with these backgrounds received flyers from the director of guidance inviting them to participate in a study that focused on experiences of ethnicity and race among immigrant-origin youth. The flyer indicated that there would be an informational meeting with the first author, scheduled at various times after school, which would provide more detailed information regarding the study. Students who attended an informational meeting were invited to participate in the study if they were interested in discussing their experiences as immigrant-origin youth in a group format. Students were asked to participate in the study if they were comfortable discussing their experiences in English. All of the students who participated in the group interviews reported being fluent in English, and that they were comfortable discussing their experiences with other students and the interviewer in English. The first author collaborated with the director of guidance to schedule the group interviews with interested students during after school hours in a private conference room or classroom at the high school. Informed consent was obtained from participants, and participants were provided with a US$20 gift card to a department store as a token of appreciation for participating in the study. Refreshments were provided for the participants in the group meetings. Parents (or legal guardians) of participants were informed of the purpose and procedures of the group interviews, and their consent for their children’s participation in the study was obtained. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the authors’ institution.

Measures

Group interview and procedure

The interviewer established ground rules to secure a safe, confidential space that would encourage participants to engage in an open discussion (Krueger & Casey, 2000). The interviewer then opened the first week’s group discussion with a mapping exercise, which involved the interviewer writing the words “I am” in a circle on a poster board, and asking the participants to write a word describing themselves and then connecting this word with the circle by drawing a line. Exercises such as the one used in the present study have been developed from previously documented tasks such as maps used by Winnicott’s (1989) Draw-a-Self task, and Fine et al.’s (2012) identity maps. We used the “I am” map to help participants begin reflection on their identities, and to help facilitate dialogue among each other. In addition, we ended the group interview meeting with a similar mapping exercise involving the words “We are” in a circle on a poster board, and requested the participants to write a word describing their group. The purpose of the second mapping exercise was to provide a closing reflection to the group dialogue and process. A sample of the “I am” map can be found in Figure 1.

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Figure 1.

Mapping exercise in a group interview (first week) with Asian American participants.

The semistructured interview included questions that were derived from existing literature concerning identity development and socioemotional adjustment of immigrant-origin youth (Rogers-Sirin & Gupta, 2012; Smith & Silva, 2011; Yoo & Lee, 2005). In each group interview, the interviewer posed broad questions followed by probes. As we aimed to capture participants’ narratives of their experiences, we used the interview questions as a guide such that the course of the group discussion was not restricted (Kang, Okazaki, Abelmann, Kim-Prieto, & Lan, 2010). The broad interview questions concerned both positive and negative experiences as a young person from a particular racial and ethnic background (e.g., Asian American, Latino/a American), experiences of being treated unfairly due to their racial and/or ethnic background, and coping with stress related to negative experiences as an immigrant-origin youth of a particular racial and ethnic background. Sample questions included “Describe a time when you have felt good about being a young person from your particular ethnic and/or racial background”; “Describe a time when it’s felt hard to be a young person from your ethnic and/or racial background”; and “What helps you when you feel stressed (such as feeling sad or worried)?” Table 1 provides a complete list of the questions asked in the first and second meetings of the group interview. Sample probes included “Tell me more about that” and “Say more about what happened.”

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Table 1.

Group Interview Questions.

Interview	Questions
Interview 1	Please think of time when you have felt good about being a young person from your particular ethnic and/or racial background. Can you think of a specific event or something that happened that caused you to feel this way?
	Please think about a time when it’s felt hard to be a young person from your ethnic and/or racial background. Can you think of a specific event or something that happened that caused you to feel this way? How did you deal with it?
	Have you ever been treated unfairly because of your background? What happened? What was this like for you? How did you deal with it?
	Do you spend time with friends from similar or the same ethnic and/or racial background, different backgrounds, or both? Does it make a difference to have friends of a similar background or different backgrounds? If so, why?
Interview 2	Last time that we met, we talked about your experiences of being a young Asian or Asian American, a and some things that feel positive and some things that feel hard about being Asian or Asian American. a This week, we will focus on how you try to deal with the stressful part of your experience. Interviewer provides examples of stressful experiences shared by participants in the previous group interview.
	What helps you when you feel stressed (such as feeling sad or worried)?
	Do you talk to anyone about what is upsetting you? Who are they?
	What do you think helps young Asian Americans a in your school and/or community outside of school cope with stress?

a

Racial background of participants altered in accordance with composition of the groups.

Data Analysis

The group interview data were analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). The purpose of conventional content analysis is to describe a phenomenon in the absence of existing research and theory that adequately explains the phenomenon in question. This analytic approach was well suited to the aims of the present study, as we were interested in learning from adolescents their experiences with ethnicity, race, and related stress, including the contextual meanings of these experiences (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992). Qualitative content analysis involves the interpretation of text data by systematically classifying and identifying themes or patterns (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). In this approach, the researcher allow for domains and themes to emerge directly from the participant’s narratives. An advantage of this approach is the ability to learn about participants’ experiences without imposing preexisting categories (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). Data analysis begins with reading through the data several times and attending to the participants’ word to word responses, in order to immerse oneself in the data as well as to achieve a sense of the data as a whole (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). The members of the research team, all of whom conducted group interviews, initially immersed in reading the interview transcripts, and then coded the data independently. Following this, over the course of numerous discussions, and rereading the interview transcripts multiple times, the team developed a final list of themes (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). The team then categorized these themes into larger domains based on similarities and differences in content (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992; Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). We also identified similarities and differences within and across the experiences of participants in each of the racial groups.

Any disagreement concerning the interpretation of the data among the research team was addressed as members of the team discussed their perspectives, reread the interview transcript, and then discussed the participants’ responses until they reached consensus regarding the final list of domains and themes. When any member of the research team disagreed with another member of the team on the coding of participants’ responses, the transcript was reread by the team, and each rater discussed her perspective in team meetings. A response in question was then coded after all of the raters, through discussion, fully agreed on the content and contextual meaning of the particular response. We used the criteria of 100% agreement or consensus on raters’ coding of responses before classifying them into themes in order to ensure the reliability and interpretability of the data (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992; Krippendorff, 2004). The final list of domains and themes reflect the research team’s collective review and analysis of the data within and across the four broad racial groups (Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Latino/a, and South Asian; Downe-Wamboldt, 1992; Hsieh & Shannon, 2005).

As trustworthiness is essential to the quality of findings in qualitative research (Morrow, 2005), we implemented several strategies. First, to ensure the accuracy of the group interview transcriptions, we sent each participant a transcript of the interview in which they participated for his or her review. In addition, the authors checked each transcription for accuracy by reviewing audio recordings and written transcriptions of the interviews. Second, we attended to the standard of reflexivity in qualitative research (Morrow, 2005). Throughout the research process, the research team met regularly and discussed our biases, assumptions, and expectations that may potentially influence data analysis and interpretation. We discussed the ways in which our social locations, such as our racial and ethnic backgrounds and gender, may impact the process of conducting the interviews and interpreting the data. For example, we discussed the diversity of our cultural backgrounds and how our personal experiences with privilege and marginalization and social location may facilitate or interfere with participants’ willingness to talk openly about topics such as racism or discrimination. Following the end of each group interview, the team discussed the process and content of the discussion among participants and the interaction between the interviewer and the participants. This provided an opportunity to address any logistical issues in conducting the interviews (e.g., scheduling conflicts), and any challenging moments in the course of the interview when an interviewer or participant may have felt uncomfortable with the content or process of the discussion. In addition, each member of the research team maintained a journal to document their observations and experiences of the group process, throughout data collection and analysis. Third, the research team engaged in critical discussion, where the coders were encouraged to discuss alternative interpretations of the data, record their reactions to the interviews, and reread the transcripts to check the developing themes against the raw data. This approach secured an attitude of openness to the data, which is a critical aspect of qualitative constructive research (Strauss, 1987). Relatedly, in analyzing the data and reporting the results, we sought to represent the participants’ experiences in the participants’ own words.

Pride in and Connection With Heritage Culture and Language

Many participants from all four racial groups (Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Latino/a and South Asian) expressed feeling pride in their cultural and linguistic heritage. Specifically, they discussed how identifying with the culture of origin or parents’ culture of origin through engaging in cultural traditions and speaking in their heritage languages facilitated a sense of pride and positive feelings about their ethnic heritage.

Difficulties in Cultural Adjustment

The second broad domain that reflected the responses of participants from all four racial groups concerned difficulties in simultaneously adjusting to mainstream American culture and to heritage ethnic communities. Analyses revealed three themes within this domain, including the barriers associated with learning English for participants arriving at a later age to the United States, the navigation of relationships with peers, and intergenerational conflicts between the participants and their parents.

Stereotypes and Discrimination

The third broad domain involved experiences of stereotyping and discrimination. This domain encompassed stereotypes related to positive and negative characteristics and experiences of discrimination both within and outside of the school setting.

Coping and Relational Contexts

The fourth domain reflected participants’ responses to being questioned about how they seek help when they face stress related to their experiences as racial minority, immigrant-origin youth. This domain encompassed four themes related to approaches to coping: talking with peers, talking with adults at school, talking with family members, and participation in religious traditions and activities.

Importance of Cultural and Linguistic Identity: Search for Bicultural Identity

Previous research has noted youth’s desire to develop a bicultural identity through which they participate both within their ethnic communities and within mainstream contexts (Berry et al., 2006; Birman & Simon, 2014; Feliciano, 2009; Fine et al., 2012). The present study expands prior research by providing a nuanced understanding of how racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents construct their identities within a particular social, cultural, and economic context. Our findings suggest that the formation of identity relies on relational contexts and processes, whereby adolescents develop their identity through interactions with others (Daha, 2011; Umana-Taylor et al., 2002). Both first and second generation participants from all of the four racial groups indicated a sense of connection with their heritage cultural and linguistic backgrounds. A sense of pride in the heritage culture was clear as participants discussed feeling special or unique when they engaged in cultural activities, or when they expressed valuing activities initiated by members of their ethnic communities that benefitted broader U.S. society. Participants also reported an interest in developing and maintaining a connection with mainstream context. For example, they shared that they wished to fit in or belong to their broader school environment. These adolescents appreciated having access to a culturally diverse group of peers and at the same time wanted their own cultural heritage to be recognized and valued. Therefore, they recommended a “culture fair” at their school in order to educate others about their cultural heritage and traditions, eliminate stereotypes, and foster a sense of community.

Consistent with prior research (Choi, 2007; Feliciano, 2009; Hall & Carter, 2006; Marks, Patton, & García Coll, 2011; Sirin et al., 2013), adolescents in our study negotiated identity in the context of socially ascribed racial labels and stereotypes. Our findings indicate that ethnicity and race are intertwined, as participants internalize both positive experiences of belonging to specific ethnic and racial groups and negative stereotyping and discrimination. The effects of a negative social mirror (Suárez-Orozco, 2000) are palpable in our participants’ experiences with ethnicity and race. For example, a Nepalese American participant spoke up in the group interview about not wanting to be labeled as Indian, but nonetheless found that his peers resisted recognizing his ethnicity. At the same time, the adolescents in our study did not want to be constrained by categories or labels imposed by others, including family members, peers, and teachers. Instead, they are actively engaged in multiple cultural contexts, perhaps in an effort to reduce stereotyping and increase a sense of belonging. This is evident as they seek friendships with peers from both similar and different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and as they question their parents’ beliefs. These youth did not necessarily view the different value orientations of home and school environments as contradictory, but rather seemed invested in developing multiple cultural identifications through connecting with peers and adults. Furthermore, it has been noted that youth experience different affective associations to ethnicity and race which are context dependent (Marks et al., 2011). We observed a variation in emotional experiences as participants discussed both positive and negative feelings toward others within their ethnic and racial groups and toward others outside of their ethnic and racial groups. As such, we underscore the importance of positive experiences and identifications with both heritage and mainstream contexts in the psychological adjustment and well-being of immigrant-origin youth.

Challenges to a Bicultural Identity

Although a bicultural identity is important to participants in our study, there are several challenges to their attempts in forming a positive bicultural identity. Specifically, the findings in our study are consistent with previous research suggesting that immigrant youth face various stressors, such as language barriers and conflicting values between their parents and peers, and the problems of negative social mirroring, such as discrimination (Ko & Perreira, 2010; Suárez-Orozco, 2001). Many first generation participants reported experiencing stress related to either their own limited English language proficiency and communication problems or that of their parents. Their accounts demonstrate the anxiety that is associated with how limited knowledge of English would place them at a disadvantage for achieving their future goals. Participants’ narratives also reflect the interpersonal strain of translating between heritage language and English for their parents, and of developing a sense of connection with peers at school where they felt alienated.

Participants in our study reported that although they were emotionally connected with their parents, they felt as though their parents’ expectations concerning their academic achievement and responsibility to their families were exceptionally high compared with that of their peers from other ethnic backgrounds. It is important to note that while participants from all four groups (Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Latino/a, South Asian) described strict parental expectations concerning social behavior and relationships (e.g., choosing a romantic partner from a similar ethnic background, completing tasks at home), Asian American and South Asian American participants reported high, sometimes excessively high, parental expectations concerning academic achievement. These findings are especially important when considering the potential longitudinal effects of intergenerational conflicts on immigrant-origin youth’s psychological well-being (Birman & Simon, 2014). Previous research indicates that immigrant parents tend to be stricter in their expectations of their daughters, and monitor their daughters more than sons (Crockett et al., 2009; Qin, 2009). Interestingly, participants from all four groups called attention to differential parental expectations with regard to gender, in which girls were expected to complete domestic chores at home, adhere to cultural expectations, and maintain identifications with heritage culture to a greater extent than boys.

Another source of acculturative stress described by the participants in the present study entailed tensions between their identifications with their heritage culture and with mainstream culture in the school context. These tensions were evident in difficult interactions with peers from similar and different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Participants indicated that they preferred friendships with similar ethnic peers, similar to findings in previous studies (Chan & Birman, 2009; Li, 2009). However, for many participants, interacting with similar ethnic peers posed a threat to a sense of belonging among peers from other backgrounds. The desire for a sense of belonging played a key role in how participants made decisions about interacting with peers from similar and different ethnic and racial backgrounds (Roche & Kuperminc, 2012).

Despite the fact that participants expressed an appreciation of attending a school that is composed of a culturally diverse student body, they reported feeling marginalized by peers and by teachers. Consistent with previous studies (Benner & Graham, 2011; Chavous et al., 2008; García Coll et al., 1996; Suárez-Orozco, 2000), discrimination was observed to be a normative experience among immigrant-origin adolescents. It is possible that attending a school with a relatively higher concentration of racial and ethnic minorities facilitated both an increased sense of identification with one’s heritage culture and community and similar ethnic peers, and an increased attunement to racial dynamics and relations among peers and teachers. The ways in which adults in the school setting (e.g., teachers) communicated their stereotypes to immigrant-origin youth is highly problematic and has important implications for participants’ academic, social, and emotional functioning. For example, first and second generation youth from all four groups shared that they experienced discrimination when teachers assumed that they did not know English, potentially underestimating adolescents’ academic abilities. In addition, teachers’ negative stereotypes of Haitian American adolescents as less competent may influence decisions about classroom placements and inappropriate approaches to discipline (Thomas et al., 2009). Conversely, teachers’ stereotypes of Asian Americans as the socially privileged model minority may contribute to a lack of recognition of economic stress, family strain, and academic, social, emotional challenges among Asian American adolescents (Patel & Kull, 2011; Stein et al., 2014). It is possible that teachers are also burdened by social inequities that are replicated in schools, and therefore may not recognize the needs of racial and ethnic minority students (Brown & Chu, 2012). Nevertheless, teachers’ valuing of school and classroom diversity is critical to facilitating positive identity development among immigrant-origin youth (Brown & Chu, 2012). Our findings raise concern about an impossible dilemma that youth face when coping with stereotyping and discrimination by peers when they feel that they cannot turn to adults in the school for help.

While experiences of stereotyping and discrimination were reported by participants from all four groups (Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Latino/a, South Asian), there were important distinctions among these experiences across the groups. Specifically, participants from each of the four groups reported being stereotyped in unique ways (e.g., “lazy,” “dirty,” “terrorist,” “smart”). Discrimination was evident primarily in verbal harassment, teasing, and bullying. For some Latino American participants, harassment consisted of verbal threats of deportation. For Haitian American participants, teachers’ negative attitudes and assumptions of misconduct contributed to feelings of mistrust and a lack of recognition. For Asian American adolescents, there was an assumption made by peers and teachers that they are innately intelligent, and therefore, expected to achieve academically at higher levels than their peers (e.g., model minority stereotype). Furthermore, contradictory stereotypes were pervasive, especially those reported by Latino/a and South Asian participants. For example, Latino/a participants reported that they are viewed as lazy but also that they work hard in certain circumstances, such as with gardening and landscaping. South Asian participants reported that they were perceived as terrorists and model minorities.

These experiences of stereotyping and discrimination fostered a sense of mistrust and negative social mirroring (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001) such that participants typically did not seek the help of adults and peers whom they believed would not be empathic toward them. Even when participants reported having a positive sense of connection with their heritage culture, they did not seem to be protected from the negative effects of discrimination directed against themselves, their peers, or their families (Stein et al., 2014; Tummala-Narra et al., 2011). Our findings underscore the unique ways that discrimination may affect the lives of immigrant-origin youth, as they cope with multiple stressors across home (e.g., intergenerational conflicts, economic stress) and school (e.g., isolation, discrimination). The findings also indicate that in addition to stereotyping and discrimination by those outside of their ethnic and racial groups, some participants struggled with stereotyping within their ethnic groups. Within group stereotyping and discrimination can be understood as a way of managing anxiety connected with negative stereotypes of participants’ ethnic and racial groups, and securing a sense of belonging to mainstream culture. For participants who were born and raised, or primarily raised in the United States prior to high school, maintaining distance from similar ethnic peers whom they referred to as FOBs (Fresh Off the Boat) may have been an attempt to minimize the salience of their own feelings of racial and cultural differences at school.

Discrimination can create an inhibiting environment (Benner & Graham, 2011) in which the choice of self-identification, engagement with both heritage and mainstream cultures, and the choice of peers is constrained by imposed and internalized stereotypes and labeling. Relatedly, studies concerning stereotype threat have indicated that ongoing experiences of being stereotyped trigger anxiety and self-doubt among racial minority youth (Potochnik et al., 2012; Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002). Even seemingly positive stereotypes (e.g., model minority) have been found to have detrimental effects on well-being (Wong, Brownson, & Schwing, 2011). Unfortunately, our participants’ narratives concerning their experiences with discrimination and stereotyping at school by peers and teachers seem to parallel those of immigrant youth in urban high schools a decade ago (Rosenbloom & Way, 2004). These findings call attention to the lack of progress made by educational institutions in promoting a positive academic and social climate for many of these youth. It is clear that adolescents in our study were engaged in an environment that replicated racial and ethnic stereotypes from broader society. At the same time, our participants expressed a desire to resist these stereotypes by making attempts to educate others about their heritage cultures and to develop friendships with peers from various cultural backgrounds. They readily recognized the falseness of stereotypes directed toward their ethnic and racial groups, and through dialogue in the group interviews collectively expressed their distress concerning discrimination and injustice. The participants seemed open, and even enthusiastic about finding ways to collaborate with their peers and with teachers to challenge stereotypes and in creating safe spaces for dialogue on ethnicity and race. The group format offered an opportunity to rethink collectively the inequality they face, and the resources that could be accessed to address this inequality, and facilitated a sense of empowerment that is critical to identity development (Weis & Fine, 2001).

Informal Sources of Support

Contrary to the notion that youth do not seek help from formal sources (e.g., mental health professionals, guidance counselors) due to stigma, participants’ decisions about help-seeking seemed to be guided by the interaction of various systemic issues and interpersonal interactions across both home and school contexts (Chang et al., 2014; García Coll & Marks, 2012; Patel & Kull, 2011). Not surprisingly, our participants tended to approach help-seeking in a way that paralleled their affective experiences within their heritage and mainstream contexts, and relied primarily on informal sources of support (e.g., family, friends). For example, participants who had experienced challenges with learning English reported seeking out friendships with peers from a similar linguistic background, and participants who experienced discrimination by peers outside of their ethnic group tended not to seek support from these peers. In addition, many participants described having a close relationship with parents, siblings, grandparents, and other family members from whom they drew support and encouragement. A sense of interdependence among family members was valued by many participants, who felt as though they could seek help from siblings and other family members when they felt concerned about burdening their parents by talking about their stress or when they felt as though their parents would not be able to understand their struggles (Yeh et al., 2003). Furthermore, for some participants, a connection to their religious community and traditions provided support in the face of acculturative stress. This is consistent with prior research suggesting that access to a supportive similar ethnic social group or enclave and a supportive connection with parents can help to mitigate the negative effects of acculturative stress (Cho & Haslam, 2010; Potochnik et al., 2012).

Negative or discriminatory experiences with teachers and peers played an important role in whether participants seek help in coping with acculturative stress. Our findings suggest that it is important to consider how youth from different ethnic and racial groups navigate seeking help in a context based on a history with other ethnic and racial groups and on their own trajectories of acculturation (Chan & Birman, 2009). Some participants, for example, stated that they did not feel that they could relate to a teacher or a guidance counselor from a different cultural background, and others expressed concern about whether adults in school would maintain privacy and confidentiality. Our findings indicate that youth were least likely to seek help from adults at school in coping with acculturative stress, perhaps reflective of a school climate challenged with complex racial and cultural dynamics among students and personnel.

Previous studies suggest that coping strategies may be influenced by the type of stress and stability of the stress over time (Yoo & Lee, 2005). Many participants in the present study stated that they are likely to wait until a problem is more severe before they seek help from others, possibly placing them at risk of greater levels of distress rather than early identification of distress. It is important to note that there were participants in all of the groups who stated that they would not seek help from anyone, and preferred to cope with stress through avoidance, or through engaging in various activities (e.g., writing in a journal, listening to music, engaging in social media). These approaches seem to indicate both resilience as youth find creative ways to cope with stress, and an avoidance of burdening others, particularly in their families whom they perceive as struggling with more severe stress, such as that related to financial limitations, unemployment, or language and educational barriers (Chang et al., 2014).

Limitations of Present Study and Implications of Findings for Research and Intervention

While adolescents’ narrative accounts provide critical, detailed information concerning experiences of ethnicity, race, and related stress, there are several limitations of the present study that are worth noting. We recognize that we used a convenience sample in one urban public high school in the Northeastern part of the United States with a culturally diverse student population, and that our findings may not fully reflect the experiences of immigrant-origin youth living in other regions of the United States and attending alternate school systems (e.g., charter, private) with a different concentration of racial and ethnic minority students. For many participants, engaging in group interviews may have been an empowering experience as they typically do not have safe spaces to discuss sensitive topics such as discrimination, and for other participants, the group format may have been a challenging space for them to discuss their perspectives.

In the present study, we observed both overlapping and distinct experiences of ethnic and racial group membership among adolescents across racial position, gender, and immigrant generation (first and second generation). Although we designed the group interview such that adolescents from similar racial backgrounds could engage in open discussions with each other, we were unable to create a space in which participants from similar ethnicities (e.g., Chinese American, Mexican American), with the exception of the Haitian American groups, could discuss issues that may have been more unique to members of their ethnic community. We also did not separate groups by gender, and this may have posed challenges to some boys and girls in sharing their perspectives. Future studies can attend to specific experiences of adjustment within ethnic groups, and to the unique experiences of boys and girls (Qin, 2009). It would also be important to conduct interviews with youth from one particular immigrant generation, especially when considering research on the immigrant paradox (Alegría et al., 2008; García Coll & Marks, 2012; Marks et al., 2014), which suggests that mental health outcomes for U.S.-born immigrant-origin individuals are worse when compared with foreign-born immigrants, implicating unique stressors faced by each generation. Furthermore, as interviews were conducted in English, the groups excluded newcomer students who are not proficient in English, and students who were not comfortable with discussing issues of ethnicity and race in English. We also did not include a measure of English proficiency or fluency in the study and, therefore, were not able to formally assess participants’ English language abilities. Our findings may be limited by differences in ethnicity, race, and gender between participants and interviewers. Although interviewers observed that participants spoke openly about their experiences, it is possible that some participants felt uncomfortable talking about ethnicity, race, and discrimination with interviewers whom they may have perceived as unable to understand their experiences. We also did not examine the role of other social identity factors, such as social class, sexual orientation, and disability which may have played a role in participants’ experiences of their ethnic and racial group memberships.

Despite these limitations, the present study has important implications for future research and interventions. Future research can examine the role of intersectionality in the experiences of racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents, and longitudinal studies would be better positioned to gain insight into how adolescents negotiate ethnicity and race in conjunction with other aspects of identity (e.g., social class) across time. Future studies can also examine the effectiveness of interventions aimed to provide safe spaces in which adolescents can discuss their challenges with acculturative stress and identity development. Research exploring the perspectives of teachers and other adults in the school context (e.g., guidance counselors, administrators), and the perspectives of parents/legal guardians on immigrant-origin youth’s experiences would further contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of systemic influences on adolescents’ identity and social, emotional, and academic adjustment.

Our findings suggest a closer attention to the design and implementation of interventions with racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents. The group interview provided opportunity for participants to share their perspectives with each other, find validation in their experiences, and examine the ways that systemic oppression affects their daily lives. They also provided a platform for discussing strategies to cope with stereotypes and discrimination. Participants expressed that they would benefit from regular discussions about stereotyping and identity in group format with their peers, including those who are from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. They underscored the importance of hiring teachers from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds, and hoped to find ways to collaborate with teachers to create safe spaces to discuss issues of discrimination and stereotyping and to educate others about their cultural heritage. Participants also shared that existing bullying prevention programming in the school did not address the problem of racial, ethnic, and linguistic discrimination. As such, they voiced the need for interventions to address the problems of discrimination, language and communication barriers, and related social isolation among immigrant-origin students.

Our study is unique in that by considering youth’s experiences across contexts, the findings can better inform interventions related to home, school, and broader community. From an integrative contextual perspective (García Coll & Marks, 2012; Marks et al., 2014), interventions should encompass multiple modalities (e.g., school-based, community-based, individual), and multiple sources of support (parents, peers, teachers) to foster positive bicultural identity and adjustment among immigrant-origin youth. School-based interventions should include workshops and other types of training for teachers and school personnel on recognizing and addressing adjustment issues related to immigration, such as language barriers, stereotyping and discrimination. Training for teachers and school personnel should emphasize the importance of their relationships with students in help-seeking decisions (Anyon, Ong, & Whitaker, 2014). In addition, teacher-student collaboratives can promote a sense of community and understanding of diverse cultural backgrounds. Exemplars of such collaboration have been described by scholars (Weis & Fine, 2001) who emphasize the central role of educators in working with adolescents to challenge social inequalities that are reproduced in schools through creating “counterpublics,” or spaces in which adolescents and adults question and challenge exclusionary practices related to race, ethnicity, language, gender, social class, and sexuality. We further highlight the importance of securing students’ privacy as an essential component of such collaboratives in order to ensure a sense of trust and belonging. It is through the creation of such safe spaces that youth can more freely express the full multiplicity of their identities. These safe spaces can also facilitate a movement away from stereotyping and blaming individuals for their emotional distress and toward recognizing that youth’s socioemotional and academic adjustment rests on systemic issues.

School-based and community-based interventions should further involve outreach to parents and caretakers in order to help bridge language and communication barriers between parents, teachers, and students. Language and communication issues should be central to the concerns of educators and clinicians. It is clear from our participants’ narratives that schools and communities need to provide increased emotional support for English language learners. It would be helpful for schools to engage in outreach efforts with cultural and religious organizations to foster dialogue concerning stress related to immigration and minority status, with the aim of increasing sources of support when identifying and coping with psychological distress. Interventions should further consider the role of peer relationships and friendships within and outside of school. Tapping peer networks can facilitate early identification of psychological distress and insight into adolescents’ experiences with cultural adjustment and identity. It is possible that social media and technology can also be used effectively for students and teachers to engage in safe dialogues concerning ethnicity and race, and provide opportunity for identity exploration and educating others about one’s heritage culture and values.

The participants in the present study interpreted their relationships with parents and other families in complex ways, feeling both supported and burdened in these relationships. As such, it is important for educators and clinicians to recognize the nuances in family relationships among immigrant-origin youth, including those connected with values and roles concerning gender. Both community-based and individual level interventions (e.g., psychotherapy) should aim to improve communication between adolescents and their parents or caretakers, address value orientation differences and intergenerational conflicts within families, and consider the systemic influences (e.g., racism, poverty) that intensify these conflicts (APA, 2012; Ying & Han, 2007). This is especially critical in diagnostic considerations as clinicians may be apt to view these family conflicts as pathological rather than as rooted in broader social oppression and immigration processes. Clinicians should make efforts to recognize the complexity of acculturation processes, the importance of bicultural identity, and specifically that immigrant-origin youth are engaged with exploring two or more sociocultural contexts often with similar investment (Berry et al., 2006; Birman & Simon, 2014; Rogers-Sirin & Gupta, 2012). It is also important for clinicians to recognize that adolescents’ identities are dynamic and fluid, and that they may have ambivalent identifications with both heritage and mainstream contexts. The integrative contextual model (García Coll & Marks, 2012; Marks et al., 2014) draws attention to the context of intervention itself. As such, clinicians should consider the role of social position factors within the therapeutic relationship. In particular, clinicians must be aware of their own ethnic and racial backgrounds, and their biases and assumptions which may potentially influence adolescents’ experiences of and engagement in counseling and psychotherapy. Finally, we underscore the importance of collaborating with youth and listening closely to youth’s narratives as a way of informing any type of culturally appropriate intervention (e.g., clinical, school-based, community-based).