| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
Goals of the Present Work
To reiterate, despite the increasing interest in ethnic-specific identity in recent years, researchers studying Asian American ethnic-specific groups have not clearly defined the distinction between studying an ethnic-specific identity (East Indian, Vietnamese) and a racial identity (Asian American). The present work attempts to fill this critical gap in the racial and ethnic-specific identity literature on Asian Americans through the development of a new theoretical framework, the Asian American Identity Model (AAIM). Contained within the AAIM framework is a twofold conceptualization of identity in Asian Americans in which racial and ethnic-specific identity are taken into account. To operationalize the AAIM, the Asian American Racial and Ethnic-specific Identity Inventories (AR/EII) were developed to assess both racial and ethnic-specific identity and to address the limitations of previous studies. The AR/EII attempt to examine three major dimensions of identity: (1) centrality, (2) regard (public and private), and (3) ideology ( connectedness, knowledge of culture, activism).
The present study will address three major research aims. First, can a reliable factor structure of the AR/EII be obtained? Second, is the racial and ethnic-specific identification process the same or similar across generational (first-generation immigrants vs. second and subsequent generations) statuses. Third, are there differences in racial and ethnic-specific identification when controlling for other social factors such as age, gender, generational status, and ethnic-specific group membership.