Abstract
Cultural identity is a complex, fluid and context bound concept. Cultural identity is informed by immigrant and second-generation youths’ experiences of adaptation and integration. Cultural identity has also been linked to youth mental health and wellbeing. Research recognizes the need to develop research tools to better capture and understand youths’ lived experiences with their identity and integration in multicultural settings. We present preliminary research findings from our community-based project that applied arts-based methodologies to explore Asian-Canadian youth identities in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada. Inclusion criteria were (i) youth between the ages of 16-29 and (ii) who self-identify as Asian or Asian-Canadian. We organized two workshops with youth participants. In workshop 1 we applied visual arts: Self-Portrait and a Relational Map. In workshop 2 we applied drama (Readers’ Theatre). Youth feedback highlighted the effectiveness of arts-based methodologies in (i) helping youth to discuss their lived experiences without feeling like they were under evaluation, (ii) providing a universal way of communicating their experiences and, (iii) allowing youth to think of issues that participants had not previously reflected on. We also shared some implementation experiences. This pilot study informed implementation strategies for a current larger project that has the objective of evaluating the effectiveness of arts-based methodologies to explore Asian-Canadian youth identities.
Highlights
This paper draws on our implementation experiences from the community-based project titled “An Artsbased Participatory Youth Engagement KMb Project on Asian-Canadian Youth Identities” led by Dr Nazilla Khanlou, from York University (Khanlou, 2018)
It is in light of this complexity of experiences and of the impacts that they may have on youth’s mental health, that it is imperative for researchers to develop effective research approaches, strategies, and tools to better capture and understand youth’s lived experiences with their identity and integration in multicultural settings
Preliminary findings show that the visual and drama arts-based methodologies applied in this project have potential in capturing the complexities of AsianCanadian youth identities
Summary
This paper draws on our implementation experiences from the community-based project titled “An Artsbased Participatory Youth Engagement KMb Project on Asian-Canadian Youth Identities” led by Dr Nazilla Khanlou, from York University (Khanlou, 2018). Cultural identity has been linked to youth’s mental health and wellbeing since it develops and is informed by immigrant and second-generation youth’s experiences of adaptation and integration in the context of multicultural societies. Challenges of integration and adaptation related to racism, discrimination, invisibility, as well as youth’s resilience and strengths, constitute the backdrop and building blocks of youth’s cultural identities and mental health. It is in light of this complexity of experiences and of the impacts that they may have on youth’s mental health, that it is imperative for researchers to develop effective research approaches, strategies, and tools to better capture and understand youth’s lived experiences with their identity and integration in multicultural settings
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