Ethnic identity and its relation to personal self-esteem: a comparison of Canadian-born and foreign-born Chinese adolescents.
Ethnic identity and its relation to personal self-esteem were examined by comparing 31 Chinese adolescents who immigrated to Canada and 31 Chinese adolescents who were Canadian born. The foreign-born adolescents were more likely to identify themselves as Chinese (rather than Chinese Canadian) and to include references to their ethnicity in response to an open-ended Who Am I Questionnaire, a variation of the Twenty Statements Test (M. H. Kuhn & T. S. McPartland, 1954). For the foreign-born group only, aspects of collective self-esteem were positively related to personal self-esteem. The differences between the groups supported a contextual emphasis for associating collective self-esteem with personal self-esteem. The data were consistent with an interpretation involving collectivistic-individualistic distinctions, with the foreign-born sample being more collectivistic.
Department of Psychology, York University, Canada.
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Verkuyten
D000293:Adolescent; D002170:Canada; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012649:Self Concept