C. Lay et M. Verkuyten, Ethnic identity and its relation to personal self-esteem: A comparison of Canadian-born and foreign-born Chinese adolescents, J SOC PSYCH, 139(3), 1999, pp. 288-299
Ethnic identity and its relation to personal self-esteem were examined by c
omparing 31 Chinese adolescents who immigrated to Canada and 31 Chinese ado
lescents who were Canadian born. The foreign-born adolescents were more lik
ely 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 collect
ive self-esteem were positively related to personal self-esteem. The differ
ences between the groups supported a contextual emphasis for associating co
llective self-esteem with personal self-esteem. The data were consistent wi
th an interpretation involving collectivistic-individualistic distinctions,
with the foreign-born sample being more collectivistic.