Colliding Ecosystems: Interpreting the Complex Social World of Adolescent Children of Immigrants

Abstract

This article proposes Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development as an interpretive lens for recognizing the challenges presented to the adolescent children of immigrant adults. His ecological framework helps us recognize how these adolescents are caught between cultures and experience the cultural divide differently than their parents, elders, and Anglo age peers. It includes suggestions for how ministers might assist these adolescents and elders to bridge what divides them from each other and the culture.