IDENTITY FORlClATION AND AC'C'ULTURATION IN SECOND GENERATION INDO-CANADIAN YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS Randal Glenn Tonks B.A., Irniversity of British Columbia. 1984 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FVLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the, Department L- ot Psychology 0 Randal Glenn Tonks 1990 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY August 1990 All rights reserved. This work ma? not be reproduced in whole or in part. by photocopy or other means, without permissio~~of the author APPROVAL Name: Randal Glenn Tonks Degree: Master of Arts Tit,les of thesis: Identit,y Formation and Acculturation in Second Generation Indo-Canadian Youth and Young Adults Examining Commit tee: Chairman: Dr. MTilliamR. Iirane Dr. Anand C. Paranjpe f \ / D$ Dennis L Iirebf I Br. James ., E- Marcia J.-i$'estwdod Faculty of Education University of British Columbia Dat,e Approved: August 24. 1990 PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE 1 hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay ,Identity Formation and Acculturation in Second Generation Indo-Canadian Youth and Young Adults Author: (s ignature) Randal Glenn Tonks pp -- (name) (bate) ABSTRACT Extending from the work of Erikson (1968), this project examines identity formation in yout'h growing up in a bicultural set,t,ing. In doing so, it. explores bhe int,er-relationships bet.ween t.wo largely independent. domains of research. These are t.he domains of ego-identit,y formation, as out,lined by Marcia (1980), and acculturative attitudes, as out.lined by Berry (1987). The ego-idenlity research is characterized by a classification of persons int,o one of four identit,y statuses based upon t'heir search and/or comnlit,ment of/t,o identities. Similarly, Berry's work on acculturation provides four alternat.ives for dealing wit,h culture and cuhral ident,ity. These four alt,ernatives are generated through the considerat.ion of an individual's desire for maint.enance of traditional culture, and contact with ot.her (host')culture(s). Ego-ident,it.y st.at.uses were assessed t.hrough t,he Extended Object,ive Measure of Ego 1dentit.y Status (EOMEIS-2), providing independent scores for each of t,he four statuses. Accult,urat,ive at.t.it'udes were assessed by an Accult.urat,ive Athtude Survey (AAS) which was adapted from a scale of Berry's. In addition, a measure of Ethnic 1dentit.y Development. (EID), const,ructed by Phinney (1989), was used to provide concurrent, validat,ion of both of t'he other instruments. Lastly, a measure of sbress was included, as it. was expect'ed to enhance undersbanding of t.hese two domains. It was expected t,hat the Int.egrat,ive accult.urat,ive at,t.it.ude would correlat,e positively wit,h Ident.it,y Achievement, and t,hat the Marginalized accult,urative at,t,it.ude would correlate positively wit,h Ident.it,y Diffusion. Beyond these two relationships, it was largely unclear how the remaining EOMEIS-2 and AAS scores would align. MANOVA of t'he AAS, stress, and demographic variables were ~erformedbased upon a classification of ego-identity stat'uses as the independent' iii variable. Last.ly, a common fact'or analysis was performed in explorat,ion of t,he relationships bet.ween all variables. Sixty-five ~nale,and sixty-five female second generat.ion Indo-Canadians from age 14 t.o 29 were surveyed. Accult,urative at,t,it,udeswere found t'o be more closely aligned wit.h t'he lower ident,it,y st,at.uses than wit.h t,he higher statuses. Secondly, support was found for Phinney's (1989) model of et,lmic ident.it,y development with MANOVA showing t.he ident.ity st,atuses t.o differ only in t,erms of EID. Finally, factor analysis reveals t'hree factors representing: i) Ident'it,y Diffusion, ii) Separat,ion, iii) Ident'it,y Achievement. / Integrat,ion. DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this work to my parents Shirley and Mike for their tremendous support over the years. Had they not given me the opportunity and support to explore my own identity, I would never have come to write this thesis. Thank-you. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Anand C. Paranjpe who has played a central role in the formation of my psychological identity. His keen interest in a pragmatic social psychology has provided guidance and support for me -- - in carrying out this project. I would also like to thank Drs. Jim Marcia, and Dennis Krebs for their assistance along the way. In addition, I would like to t,hank Dr. Ray Koopman for his multidin~ensionalhelp. The PSPs: Ross Powell, Gira Bhat,t, Jeremy Carpendale and Brian Grady have also been of great help by providing intellectual stimulation and crit.icism. Again, thanks goes out t.o Dr. Marv Wesbwood for his helpful comment,^, suggehons and support. I also owe a tremendous amount of t,hanks t.o Jjiohi Sanghera, Karnaljit Sidhu, June Chan, and the many other people who helped me get. in touch with the parhicipant,~for this st,udy. In addit,ion, I want t,o once again express my grat.it,ude t,o all of the people from the Indo-Canadian communit,y who t,ook the time to participate. Finally, I want to thank Erin Slaney for letting me spend so much t.ime with Rahjah, and for put,ting up with my insanity. TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval ..................................................... ii Dedication .................................................... v Acknowledgements .............................................. vi List. of Tables ..................................................ix List of Figures ................................................. xi I . INTRODUCTION .........................................1 Erikson's Identity Scheme .................................... 1 Marcia's Ego-Identity Statuses ................................ F.r Ethnic Identity and Acculturation ............................. 12 Present Research Project .................................... 22 I1. METHOD ..............................................30 Subjects ................................................ 30 Measures ...............................................31 Procedure ............................................... 36 I11 . RESULTS ...............................................39 Va1idit.y and Reliabi1it.y of Scales ..............................39 Characteristics of the Sample ................................. 44 Ego-Identit y and Acculturation ...............................49 Factor Analysis ...........................................-58 IV . DISCUSSION ........................................... 63 Review of Measures .......................................63 Review of the Dat.a ........................................ 65 Implications and Projections for Future Work .....................73 REFERENCES ................................................80 APPENDIXA ................................................ 83 Poster for Solicitation ...................................... 84 APPENDIX B ................................................. 8.5 Cover Letter .............................................86 Consent Form ............................................ 67 APPENDIXC ................................................. 88 Parental Consent Form ..................................... 89 APPENDIXD ................................................. 90 Background Information .....................................91 APPENDIXE ................................................. 93 Acculturative ................................ 94 Scoring Sheet for AA .................................10.5 APPENDIX F ............ .L *. ............................... 106 Extended Objective Ego Identity Status ................ 107 Scoring Sheet for EOMEIS-2 ................................. 114 APPENDIX G ................................................115 Phinney Ethnic Identity Measure.... ............................. 116 Scoring Sheet for PEIM .(;. ................................119 APPENDIX H ................................................. 120 Cawte Stress Test ...i.I .................................. 121 APPENDIX1 ................................................ 122 Follow-up Sheet .......................................... 123 APPENDIX J ................................................124 Coding Sheet for AAS .....................................125 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page Internal Reliabilit,~C0efficient.s (Cronbach's alpha) for Accult,urat,iveAt.t.it,ude Survey Scales . 41 Int,ernal Reliability coefficient,^ (C'ronbach's alpha) for EOMEIS-2 1dent.ity St,at,usScales . 43 Summary St.at,isticsfor All Variables . 44 Cell Means and Standard Deviabions for Sources of Sampling . 47 One-way Analysis of Variance of t,he Effects of Sampling Source. 48 Cross-Correlat,ions Between Ego-Iclent,it,y St,at,uses and Accult,urative At.t,it,udes.. 49 Cell Means and St,andard Deviations for EOMEIS-2 Ego-1dentit.y Statuses . .52 One-way Analysis of Variance of t,he Effect,s of EOMEIS-2 Identity St,at.uses . .53 Cont,rast. Analysis of Variance Bet.wee11