Challenges of Adolescent and Young Adult Chinese American Identity Construction: An Application of Problematic Integration Theory

Abstract

The current work synthesizes past social constructionist research on multicultural identity with a general perspective on communication, mind, and meaning: problematic integration (PI) theory (Babrow, 19922007). Sensitizing concepts drawn from past research and PI theory are illustrated, enlivened, and illuminated in a qualitative discourse analysis of depth interviews with young Chinese Americans. The analyses illustrate that identity, particularly the complexity of multicultural identity, is constructed provisionally, and requires ongoing discursive reconfiguration as inconsistencies, uncertainties, and ambivalence are recognized during the interview process. Respondents' identities are dynamic, the dynamics following arcs of problematic integration and tentative, provisional discursive resolutions of these problematics within ongoing conversation and broader social contexts.