Multiracial Daughters of Asian Immigrants: Identity and Agency

Asian American adolescent girls: Navigating stress across multiple contexts.

“…As such, developmental transitions such as that from middle school to high school and from high school to college can be characterized by heightened awareness of racial, religious, and ethnic identities and experiences of marginalization and isolation. For Asian American girls who are biracial or multiracial or adopted by parents of an ethnic or racial background different from their own, experiences of discrimination are often directed by people both within Asian American and mainstream U.S. contexts (Crane, 2013; R. M. Lee, 2010).…”

“…Researchers have underscored the importance of bicultural identity in psychological well-being and suggested that immigrant-origin youth engage in developing a positive bicultural identity with a connection with the heritage culture as well as with the mainstream context (Tummala-Narra & Sathasivam-Rueckert, 2016). The navigation across different cultural contexts can be especially challenging in the case of biracial and multiracial and/or adopted adolescent girls and girls who identify as lesbian, bisexual, queer, transgender, or gender nonconforming because they may face marginalization both within and outside their ethnic and/or religious communities (Chong & Kuo, 2015;Crane, 2013). Eng and Han (2000) described racial melancholia as an experience common to many Asian Americans as they negotiate challenges of being seen as a racial other, even when they have been born and raised in the United States.…”

“…However, other psychologists have challenged these overgeneralizations of Asian American women and girls and instead have developed multicultural feminist therapy with Asian American girls and women, emphasizing girls' and women's individual needs, relationships, and broader sociocultural contexts (Chin, 2007;Crane, 2013;Patel, 2007). In their view, feminist and multicultural approaches to psychotherapy can be integrated with other approaches (e.g., humanistic, psychodynamic, cognitive behavior).…”

“…In their view, feminist and multicultural approaches to psychotherapy can be integrated with other approaches (e.g., humanistic, psychodynamic, cognitive behavior). Multicultural feminist scholars have emphasized the role of therapists' understanding of the client's sociocultural context and the examination of their own cultural history and its impact on the therapeutic relationship and have challenged the ways in which traditional theories have been conceptualized and implemented in psychotherapy (Crane, 2013;Hays, 2016;Tummala-Narra, 2016). These theorists have worked toward creating new spaces to explore the diverse experiences of Asian American adolescent girls and women.…”

“…Reiko Homma-True (2017), a Japanese American psychologist, has written about her integrative approach to psychotherapy with Asian American girls and women, which integrates concepts from different traditions, such as psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, somatic therapy, and mindfulness meditation. She, among other scholars (Crane, 2013;Porter, 2015;, emphasized the diversity among Asian American girls and women with respect to race, ethnicity, acculturation, immigration history, educational backgrounds, and parental attitudes toward gender roles, as well as the role of interdependence and independence in the psychological lives of girls and women. Such diversity requires close attention to the particular sociocultural context of a client as it intersects with individual family history and circumstances.…”