Ethnic Identity Among Mixed‐Heritage People In Hawaii

Abstract

In this study, intensive interviews were used to explore the identity of a sample of mixed‐heritage Hawaiin college students from a variety of ethnic groups. The great majority of respondents listed at least one multiple‐heritage identity (e.g., Chinese‐Japanese). While cultural exposure and ethnic identity were strongly associated, cultural exposure is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for ethnic identity to occur. Differences in perceptions of ethnic identity between respondents with stable and situtionally changing identities were discussed. The conceptions of identity proposed by processual and structural symbolic interactionists both received some support in these data.