Ethnic identity development: A comparative study of active and non-active second generation youth in the Latvian community

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The word ethnicity is derived from the Greek word for nation: ethnos means a group characterized by common descent. In the narrowest sense, it refers to a feeling of continuity with the past, a feeling maintained by individuals as an essential part of their self-definition. The aim of the present investigation is to explore the personal, family and community dynamics associated with ethnic identity development and active ethnic community participation by second generation Latvian youth in order to increase our understanding of the process of ethnic identity maintenance in a multicultural society. Ethnicity has been studied at three levels: personal, social and collective. At the personal level, the focus is on the individual's self-definition. The socialpsychological level takes into account the use of ethnic frames of reference in social interaction, whereas studies at the collective group level examine the characteristics by which ethnic groups are identified and how the group identity is preserved and changes over time. Furthermore, ethnicity can be specified in terms of two major dimensions, the objective and subjective. The objective or sociodemographic dimension describes the objective linkage with one's ancestry and includes physical characteristics, language and cultural elements. These refer to the ethnic traits which describe the collective group and which can, but do not necessarily, serve as a source of self-identity for any given individual. The subjective dimension, however, refers to the individual's active awareness or consciousness of his/her ethnic heritage as a source of identity and provides the affective link between the past and one's current self-definition. The subjective dimension includes the psychological aspects of identity such as attitudes, feelings and cognitions related to one's sense of peoplehood. Ethnic identification is not simply determined by a common ancestry, but depends on how the group conceives of itself, on the boundaries that it perceives between group members and outsiders. The persistence of ethnicity depends on the awareness and maintenance of boundaries. The nature of boundaries may change, the cultural characteristics of the members may be transformed and the organizational form of the ethnic group may alter, yet the active dichotomization