Karen L. Suyemoto

Relationship between physical appearance, sense of belonging and exclusion, and racial/ethnic self-identification among multiracial Japanese European Americans.

In this study the authors explored the relation of physical appearance, perception of group belonging, and perception of group exclusion to racial/ethnic identity in multiracial Japanese European Americans. Results indicate that physical appearance and social variables of sense of belonging and exclusion related to one monoracial racial/ethnic group significantly predicted self-identity with the corresponding monoracial group. There was also a significant relationship between Japanese American identity and multiracial appearance and social variables. Feelings of exclusion were shown to be the primary influence on all three racial/ethnic identities.

Education as Catalyst for Intergenerational Refugee Family Communication About War and Trauma

This article describes influences on intergenerational communication within refugee families about sociocultural trauma and explores how education may positively affect this communication process. Drawing on qualitative research and grounded theory through a larger study concerning intergenerational effects of and communication about trauma in Cambodian American refugee families, this article highlights ways that education may contribute to healing broken narratives within refugee families affected by war and genocide. Although focusing on Cambodian American experiences, we suggest that the role of education may be similarly helpful in facilitating intergenerational communication for other individuals with personal and familial experiences with trauma, such as students from refugee families who have fled Vietnam, Somalia, Bosnia, and other sites of forced migration.

Which box should I check?: examining standard check box approaches to measuring race and ethnicity.

OBJECTIVE This study examined methodological concerns with standard approaches to measuring race and ethnicity using the federally defined race and ethnicity categories, as utilized in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Surveys were administered to 219 economically disadvantaged, racially and ethnically diverse participants at Boston Women Infants and Children (WIC) clinics during 2010. STUDY DESIGN We examined missingness and misclassification in responses to the closed-ended NIH measure of race and ethnicity compared with open-ended measures of self-identified race and ethnicity. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Rates of missingness were 26 and 43 percent for NIH race and ethnicity items, respectively, compared with 11 and 18 percent for open-ended responses. NIH race responses matched racial self-identification in only 44 percent of cases. Missingness and misclassification were disproportionately higher for self-identified Latina(o)s, African-Americans, and Cape Verdeans. Race, but not ethnicity, was more often missing for immigrant versus mainland U.S.-born respondents. Results also indicated that ethnicity for Hispanic/Latina(o)s is more complex than captured in this measure. CONCLUSIONS The NIHs current race and ethnicity measure demonstrated poor differentiation of race and ethnicity, restricted response options, and lack of an inclusive ethnicity question. Separating race and ethnicity and providing respondents with adequate flexibility to identify themselves both racially and ethnically may improve valid operationalization.

Training Therapists to Be Culturally Sensitive with Asian American Women Clients

SUMMARY We describe here a developmental sequence of three key training experiences that contribute to developing cultural sensitivity for clinicians who are not of Asian heritage and are working with Asian American women. The sequence reflects and illustrates our guiding assumptions for developing multicultural sensitivity, including an emphasis on cultural self-awareness and a reflexive approach to knowledge acquisition and clinical practice. Effects of these training experiences are illustrated through three case examples of therapy with Asian American women written by an African American male and two European American female therapists at different stages in their training.

A method for collecting and interpreting interpersonal behavioral data in Second Life: A sample study on Asians’, Blacks’, and Whites’ social distances

In this paper, we describe a method for collecting and interpreting interpersonal behavioral data in the Virtual World, Second Life. To illustrate this method we provide details for the implementation of a study on social distances between Black, White, and Asian participants in Second Life. Participants’ avatars were fitted with a virtual object containing a computer script that recorded their coordinates on the Second Life grid at one-second intervals. Participants interacted at a social event in a controlled environment in Second Life for 15 minutes. A computer algorithm (developed for this study in the statistical analysis program, R) was used to calculate each participant’s average social distance from one another across the 15-minute event. Average social distance scores were then aggregated into social distance towards racial groups as a whole (i.e., each participants’ social distance towards Blacks, Whites, and Asians). This paper provides details for researchers interested in adopting or modifying our Virtual World method for interpersonal behavioral data collection and interpretation. Specifically we focus on the development of a controlled Second Life environment, the adaptation of a Second Life computer script (adapted from Yee & Bailenson, 2008), the computer algorithm for calculating social distances, and our methods for recruiting and conducting study trials.

So You, My Children, Can Have a Better Life: A Cambodian American Perspective on the Phenomenology of Intergenerational Communication about Trauma

ABSTRACT We address this question: How do Cambodian American young adults come to know about their family’s experiences of trauma? Using a social constructivist critical ideological approach, we developed a phenomenological model describing intergenerational communication about trauma (IGCT) in Cambodian American families. We found IGCT to be an interactional process in which younger and older generations each played a role. IGCT was influenced by the availability of multiple sources of information and opportunities for learning, interpersonal connectedness between the generations, emotional distress tolerance, and having motivation to empathically learn and share. When these factors were abundant, direct interactive IGCT was more likely. When wanting, the IGCT was more disrupted and incoherent, filled with emotionally charged silence and lead to negative attributions. IGCT was a dynamic process that could change over time to accommodate developmental change. Limitations of the findings, clinical implications, and future directions are discussed.

Korean transracial and international adoptees: Ethnic identity and sense of belonging and exclusion in relation to birth and adoptive groups

ABSTRACT Past quantitative ethnic identity research on transracial and international adoptees (TRIAs) has focused on their birth culture. Given that adoptees may also identify with their adoptive family’s culture, we examined Korean and White European American ethnic identities in Korean American adoptees. Identity exploration and commitment were significantly positively correlated within each referent group. Results also indicated relatively higher levels of birth group identity exploration and higher adoptive group identity commitment. In addition, we used cluster analysis to create ethnic identity profiles and investigated the relations between identity profiles and sense of belonging and exclusion. Our findings signal a need to support TRIAs to develop inclusive flexible ethnic identities and suggest future research should examine multiple referent groups and the intersection of these identities.

Racialized sexism/sexualized racism: A multimethod study of intersectional experiences of discrimination for Asian American women.

This article presents findings from a multimethod qualitative study on the intersectional experiences of discrimination for Asian American women. Participants included 94 women from various Asian American ethnic groups (Mdnage = 25) who participated in an online survey analyzed through consensual qualitative research–modified and 13 women (Mdnage = 29) from different Asian American ethnic groups who participated in focus group interviews analyzed using thematic content analysis. Results revealed 15 themes that illuminated the types of discrimination experienced by participants as Asian American women, namely, tokenist representative of Asian Americans, mislabeled/assumed ethnicity, foreigner, excluded, smart and/or inevitably successful, culture-based discrimination, criminal, bad driver, denying experiences of discrimination, exotic, not a leader, submissive and passive, cute and small, invisible, and service worker. Experiences of discrimination occurred in a variety of personal and professional contexts. Research and clinical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.