Identity Conflict Research Articles

From otherness to belongingness: the role of co-ethnic relationships in Korean New Zealanders’ ethnic identity formation

ABSTRACT This study examines the social inclusion and identity formation of newer-generation Korean New Zealanders, focusing on their preference for co-ethnic relationships during their transitions to high school and university. Through interviews with thirty individuals, the research highlights early experiences of societal minoritisation and internalized racism, leading to ethnic identity suppression. Despite efforts to assimilate, participants faced identity struggles. Increased ethnic diversity in later educational stages facilitated co-ethnic engagement, fostering belonging and ethnic identity affirmation. The study underscores the critical role of co-ethnic relationships in navigating identity conflicts and promoting inclusion, offering insights into fostering an inclusive environment for ethnic minorities.

Exploring Bilingualism: Cognitive Benefits and Cultural Challenges

Bilingualism is a multifaceted phenomenon with profound implications for cognitive functioning and cultural identity. Research has consistently shown that being bilingual enhances cognitive abilities, such as improved executive function, greater cognitive flexibility, and superior problem-solving skills. These cognitive advantages stem from the constant mental exercise of managing two linguistic systems, which enhances brain plasticity and can even provide protective effects against cognitive decline in aging. However, the benefits of bilingualism are accompanied by cultural and identity challenges. Bilingual individuals often navigate complex social dynamics, including cultural duality, identity conflicts, and experiences of language stigmatization or marginalization. This article explores these cognitive benefits and cultural challenges, analyzing how bilingualism influences an individual's worldview and opens up diverse career opportunities. It also discusses the broader societal implications, highlighting the importance of creating supportive environments for bilingual and multilingual communities.

Sea turtles stranded ashore: Sociocultural dissonance and identity conflicts in migration intentions of Chinese international student returnees

In the post-COVID-19 era, Chinese international student returnees are facing greater identity conflicts during their reintegration. Understanding their sociocultural and ideological identity negotiation will better accommodate their needs and facilitate their integration into society. This study explored identity conflicts experienced by Chinese student returnees across ecological systems after reentry to China during COVID-19. A qualitative approach was used with 20 returnees. The key findings of this study reveal multi-layered conflicts stemming from the discordance between traditional Eastern values and newly acquired Western perspectives across meso-to-macro systems. In addition, important factors corresponding to returnees’ social capital were identified during the acculturation. Coping mechanisms and migration intentions were observed to vary distinctly among the identified identity clusters. Individuals with a "homestayer" identity, characterized by a deep commitment to integrating with the Chinese community and a higher level of perceived social capital in China, predominantly employed positive coping strategies, such as behavioral adaptation. This group exhibited a strong inclination to remain in China. Conversely, those with a "wayfarer" identity, who experienced deeper immersion in foreign cultures and displayed critical views towards Chinese society with a perceived low social capital in China, tended to adopt negative coping strategies like social withdrawal, correlating with a pronounced intention to migrate. Finally, "navigators", who skillfully balance their native Chinese and foreign cultural identities and effectively manage transnational engagements and diverse cultural norms through their perceived strong social capital in both societies, demonstrated a tendency towards hybrid coping strategies tailored to individual scenarios, reflecting a nuanced, case-by-case approach. This group exhibited a mixed migration intention, indicative of their flexible identity orientation. These findings suggest the need for multi-level support systems and policies that not only facilitate returnee identity continuity but also foster an inclusive and diverse societal framework to effectively retain this valuable population.

The Interplay of Poverty, Hardship, And Exploitation in Postcolonial Nigeria in Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow

This study analyzes Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow through the lens of postcolonial theory, examining the socio-economic, environmental, and gendered issues in postcolonial Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta. The novel reflects the region’s ongoing struggles with neocolonial exploitation, environmental degradation, and identity conflict, intensified by global capitalism and patriarchal structures. A gap exists in analyzing how these dynamics intertwine with postcolonial legacies in Nigerian literature. Using textual analysis, the study explores how Agary critiques these neocolonial forces, illustrating their devastating impact on both people and the environment. Key findings include the portrayal of economic exploitation, environmental degradation, and the marginalization of women, with Zilayefa, the protagonist, embodying the hybrid identity struggling for self-definition. The study recommends further exploration of gendered oppression within postcolonial frameworks and the development of policies to address resource control, environmental justice, and gender equality in postcolonial Nigeria.

How Parenting Facilitates Adolescents’ Tricultural Identity Development: A Mixed Methods Collective Case Study of Tridimensionally Acculturating Black Jamaican Immigrant Families

This article presents a mixed methods collective case study of the role of maternal socialization in shaping the tricultural identity development of Jamaican immigrant adolescents in the United States, who are known to acculturate tridimensionally. Seven Black adolescents (14–18 years; four male) completed online surveys and their Jamaican-born mothers completed online interviews during the dual COVID-19 and Whiteness pandemics. In-depth mixed methods case analyses and cross-case comparisons revealed both particulars and universals. Across all cases, adolescents had strong Jamaican private identities shaped by steady proximal and remote enculturation into Jamaican culture, and mothers’ skillful authoritative parenting supported their autonomy in acquiring and navigating U.S. cultural affiliations. Case particulars grouped adolescents into four profiles with one case fitting two profiles. 1) “Triculturals” had strong Jamaican or multicultural socialization with positive psychological and academic adaptation, but differing multicultural identity conflict. 2) “Reluctant Majority Culture Assimilators” had high achievement but differing psychological adaptation with mothers whose socialization first involved accepting their teens’ African American identities. 3) “Majority Culture Rejectors” had high belonging and no psychological distress but low average grades with maternal socialization that promoted the American Dream master narrative and resisted the alternative narrative of negative linked fate of ethnic minorities. 4) Finally, “Minority Culture Assimilators” had low multicultural identity conflict but differing psychological and academic adaptation and were being socialized by their mothers to resist being either victim or perpetrator of racial discrimination by harnessing cultural variability to play up and play down cultural identities and by avoiding use of ethnic-racial generalizations.

Attitudes of Jewish and Muslim Religious Leaders Towards the Declaration of Principles as a Test Case for Judaism and Islam between Peace and Conflict

The Declaration of Principles (Oslo I Accord, September 1993) was the inaugural groundbreaking agreement in the Israeli‒Palestinian Identity conflict, which revolves around consecrated territory as well as identity components on both sides. This historic accord elicited myriad responses, yet the stances of religious figures are particularly consequential given the profound and intricate religious underpinnings of the conflict. This paper presents the attitudes toward the Declaration of Principles (DOP) held by six religious personages: Rabbi Yehuda Amital, an Israeli Jew supporter of the DOP; Rabbi Shlomo Goren, an Israeli Jew who opposed it; Sheikh Abdullah Nimer Darwish, an Israeli Arab who endorses the DOP; Sheikh Raed Salah, an Israeli Arab who rejects it; Sheikh ʿImad al-Falouji, a Palestinian proponent; and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian opponent. Based on rulings, statements, and press publications, this paper analyzes their rationales and utilization of religion’s social influencing mechanisms, seeking to understand religion’s capacity to confer legitimacy upon alternative religious values enabling conflict resolution through political means, thereby impacting the conflict toward reconciliation or, conversely, escalation. This paper aims to characterize the discourse and reasoning to propose more efficacious means of attaining broad religious legitimacy for future, sustainable peace accords.

Evolution of Value Systems in the “Era of Great Changes”: General Challenges and Problems

The article examines the evolution of the system of traditional values in the era of fundamental changes in the social system. Values of different levels are considered: formational, belonging to a certain social system and changing with the change of the system, as well as civilizational, deep values, generated in a certain religious and cultural space and preserved in the system of ideals and norms of behavior of many generations.Values reflect and express a certain state of the whole society. With the change of the social system through formational evolution in the West or through “catch-up modernization” in non-Western countries, changes occur in the system of values as an interconnected set of ideals, ideas and norms. Traditional values, as a rule, retreat before the values of “today”, generated by society itself or borrowed from outside. Conflicts of identity and self-identity of the individual and society arise.In the first decades of the 21st century, in the context of the beginning of the change of the world order, new meanings of development are being developed and sought. The processes of globalization (technological revolution, global migration, flows of goods and information), as well as the West’s desire to maintain the dominant order, while nonWestern countries strengthen their importance in the world system, give rise to conflicts of values at different levels. However, not every civilizational challenge becomes a threat to traditional values. In non-Western societies, there is an adaptation of their value system to changed conditions while maintaining fidelity to the ideals and norms of their cultural and religious tradition.

Fulani herder-farmer identity conflict in West Africa with a particular focus on security implications for Nigeria

ABSTRACT In recent years, the Nigerian populace has been affected by the menace of Fulani herder-farmer clashes. Conflict between Fulani herder and farmers which poses far reaching consequences in almost all geopolitical zones of the country has been attributed to weak security institutions and architecture, vast ungoverned spaces, ethnic cleansing tendencies, illegal migration, the search for pastures to mitigate adverse effect of global warming and climate change. While existing arguments on the causes and implications of Fulani herder and farmers remain valid, I contend, using the conceptual-theoretical nexus framework and drawing from secondary source of data that dealing with these factors are exiguous without dealing with the root cause (identity conflict) of the menace. The study argues that the psycho-social disposition, beliefs and stereotypes instigate Fulani herder-farmer clashes to the extent of threatening Nigeria’s nationhood. The study also affirms that the phenomenon of identity conflict is a long-term neglected social issue of discrimination and structural exclusion of the Fulani group from benefiting from the commonwealth of natural resources based on the locomotive nature of their traditional occupation. It is therefore concluded that identity conflict though the root cause of the Fulani herder-farmer conflicts is more for economic survival than ethnic affiliation.

Трудовые ресурсы в условиях военной опасности как ключевой фактор повышения промышленного потенциала

The article examines the problem of mobilising the industrial potential of Russia in terms of the growing military danger during SMO under decrease in the demographic and labour potential of the Russian Federation. The authors emphasize the effective involvement of labour resources is a key element for development of the industrial potential. Those are necessary to counter the increasing escalation of the military conflict and the desire of Western countries for military and political defeat of Russia. However, the reduction of labour potential and the aging of the population can cause serious socio-economic and political problems. A liberal approach to migration poses long-term threats to the State. Unregulated migration processes will inevitably cause an increase in unemployment, a decrease in the share Russian nation itself, loss of national identity, social tension, and cultural, ethnic, and religious conflicts. It requires a thorough systematised approach and effective monitoring of demographic trends. The state should find a balance between attracting labour from outside and increasing its own labour resources. It also should provide the rational use of existing labour resources.

Border Tensions for Rethinking Communication and Development: A Case of Building History in Ticoya Resguardo

This article proposes rethinking communication, development, and social change from a decolonial perspective through the case study of the Ticoya resguardo. It examines how the oral traditions of Indigenous elders construct a history of the territory, positioning orality as a practice of communicative and cognitive justice that transcends the dominant structures of the nation-state. Border tensions are explored both as a physical reality between Colombia and Peru and as a metaphor for identity conflicts. The theoretical framework incorporates debates on post-development, pluriverse, and southern epistemologies, challenging social inequalities. A qualitative methodology based on the praxeological method was implemented in four stages in collaboration with the resguardo’s communications committee. Producing a radio series narrated by participants was crucial for gathering the elders’ narratives through conversations, social mapping, and storytelling. The findings emphasize the break with linear temporality in narratives, the sense of territory beyond state borders, and the identity tensions of river dwellers. The conclusion underscores the necessity of a decolonial perspective, recognizing the impact of monocultures in obscuring diverse forms of life. The Ticoya resguardo case illustrates how communicative justice can highlight the local and everyday, considering the territory essential in the pluriverse, aligning with Escobar’s and Santos’ proposals on transitions toward a pluriversal world.

Challenging Identity Conflict: How Queer, Trans, and Nonbinary Muslim Organizations Incite Activism

Abstract This article synthesizes new directions taken in the sociology of religion and social movement studies and examines Queer, Trans, and Nonbinary (QTN) Muslim activism in Toronto, Canada. The author argues that Queer Trans and Nonbinary Muslim Organizations (QTNMOs) do more than help reconcile their members’ conflicting identities. Instead, QTNMOs use intersectional frameworks to help QTN Muslims resist intracommunity marginalization in mainstream queer and religious organizations. Findings show that QTNMOs can be considered Social Movement Organizations in three ways: these groups defy culturally embedded institutional norms that are harmful to QTN Muslims, they aim to foster oppositional consciousness, and they incite collective action from their constituents. The article provides a case study of multi-institutional LGBTQ religious activism. The intersectional perspectives of QTN Muslims allow interested sociology of religion and social movements scholars to strengthen the insights gained from each of these fields.

Navigating sexual minority identity in sport: a qualitative exploration of sexual minority student-athletes in China

BackgroundSexual minority student-athletes (SMSAs) face discrimination and identity conflicts in intercollegiate sport, impacting their participation and mental health. This study explores the perceptions of Chinese SMSAs regarding their sexual minority identities, aiming to fill the current gap in research related to non-Western countries.MethodsA qualitative methodology was adopted, utilising the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach with self-categorization theory as the theoretical framework. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling, and data were collected via semi-structured interviews, documents, and field notes. Sixteen former and current Chinese SMSAs participated in this study.ResultsThe study reveals four themes: hidden truths, prioritisation of athlete identity, self-stereotyping, and attempt. The results revealed that while SMSAs were common in intercollegiate sport, their identities were often concealed and not openly discussed. The predominant focus on athlete identity in sport overshadowed their sexual minority identities. Additionally, SMSAs developed self-stereotypes that influenced their thoughts and behaviours. The non-heterosexual team atmosphere in women’s teams led to the development of intimate relationships among teammates.ConclusionsThe findings from this study could be incorporated into existing sport policies to ensure the safe participation of SMSAs in Chinese intercollegiate sports. This research offers valuable insights for the development and implementation of inclusive policies. Future research in China could investigate the attitudes of coaches and heterosexual student-athletes toward sexual minority identities to inform targeted interventions.

EFL teachers’ perceptions of emotional exhaustion and associated regulation strategies: a phenomenological analysis

ABSTRACT Teaching, particularly in a second/foreign language (L2) context, is an emotionally demanding profession, often leading to negative outcomes for educators. Teaching, particularly in a second/foreign language (L2) context, is an emotionally demanding profession, often leading to negative outcomes for educators. To fill the gap, this phenomenological study examined the causes, consequences, and regulation strategies of Chinese EFL teachers’ emotional exhaustion. A semi-structured interview was held with 58 teachers. The results of thematic analysis revealed that this emotional state had different causes and consequences. The most frequent causes were ‘occupational pressures’, ‘identity conflicts and mismatches’, ‘stressful classroom climate’, ‘high expectations’, and ‘students’ poor performance and cooperation’. Additionally, it was found that teachers’ emotional exhaustion can mostly lead to ‘poor teaching quality’, ‘job burnout’, ‘low work engagement’, ‘low teaching enthusiasm’, and ‘various other negative emotions and outcomes’. To regulate such an aversive feeling, the participants used a range of preventive and responsive strategies before and after its occurrence. The study discusses the findings and presents some conclusions and implications for Chinese L2 teachers, teacher trainers, and policy-makers to raise their understanding of the nature and mechanism of emotional exhaustion in teaching English and its regulation.

Jewish and Arab lecturers teaching Jewish and Arab teachers how to teach in the ‘other’ society: Insights into the development of intercultural competence in a high-intensity conflict society

This study focused on the Leadership in Cross-Cultural Teaching Program (Cross-Teach), which retrains academics to become teachers in the ‘other’ (Jewish vs. Arab) educational stream in Israel, a high-intensity conflict society. The research aimed to uncover lecturers' understanding of intercultural competence (henceforth, IC), investigating how they perceive it should be imparted to pre-service teachers operating across intercultural boundaries. Nine lecturers, representing diverse backgrounds and extensive experience, were interviewed and the transcripts were used as data for qualitative analysis. This research presents a novel perspective on IC among educators, emphasizing comprehensive skills ranging from cognitive and emotional dimensions to identity exploration. Diverging from existing literature, our study uniquely focuses on identity and conflict as an essential component of IC among teachers. The lecturers delve into the reciprocal learning environment, exposing participants to identity conflicts and fostering intercultural encounters. The inclusion of diverse Arab and Jewish lecturers further enriches our exploration of identity formation. Our findings illuminate the complex dynamics, challenges, and opportunities for IC within a society marked by high-intensity conflict.

The identity conflict process: Appraisal theory as an integrative framework for understanding identity conflict at work.

Identity conflict-the experience of perceiving incompatibilities between aspects of one's identity content that call into question the individual's ability to meet the identity standard of at least one of these identities-can significantly impact individuals' work experiences. As individuals navigate experiences of identity conflict at work, managers and organizations also grapple with how to support employees' multiple identities while mitigating the primarily negative outcomes of identity conflict. However, the scholarship on work-relevant identity conflict faces several challenges, including disciplinary fragmentation, conceptual imprecision, and diverse but deficient theoretical perspectives, which together have limited our ability to accumulate knowledge about this experience and to develop useful management tools. To overcome these, we conducted a thorough review of the cross-disciplinary literature, allowing us to offer a refined integrative definition of identity conflict and a reconceptualization of identity conflict as the result of an appraisal process. As we delineate what we know about the appraisal process of identity conflict, we provide a detailed theoretical explanation of its antecedents, outcomes, and responses and shed light on the mechanisms that drive the process. This approach not only enhances theoretical depth and guides new research directions but also equips managers to address and reduce identity conflict experienced by their employees. This research contributes to the literature by offering clarity and coherence to the identity conflict domain, providing theoretical and practical guidance, and outlining promising directions for future inquiry. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Postcolonial Poetics: We Are All Birds of Uganda (2021)

The paper addresses all facets of post-colonialism in Hafsa Zayyan's We Are All Birds of Uganda (2021). The paper purports to delineate the analysis of identity conflict and racism in the novel using a postcolonial perspective. In this paper, the descriptive qualitative method was drawn upon. The postcolonial issues found in this novel are identity conflict, exile, ambivalence, alienation, racism, binarism, and marginalization. The study weaves together and examines the effects of post-colonialism on Indians in two major countries: Uganda and the United Kingdom. As a result, the article aims to examine the novel's marrow from a postcolonial perspective as well as give examples from the novel illustrating the use of postcolonial elements such as memory, identity, otherness, ambivalence, nationalism, space/place, diaspora, hybridity, unbelonging. The paper is significant because it invites Western societies to change their arrogant superiority beliefs based on racial rationales. This paper will explore all the tunnels of post-colonialism in Hafsa Zayyan's We Are All Birds of Uganda (2021). The themes concern identity conflict, racism, and hybridity. The results of the study show how racism and discrimination affect the formulation and perpetuation of postcolonial identity. The study recommends that instilling acceptance, tolerance, and love rather than hatred toward one another is the simplest way to eradicate racism.

Foreign Director Exit in the Midst of Deteriorating Bilateral Political Relations

Amid global geopolitical realism pushing for a race of hegemonic rivalry nowadays, an outflow of global human talents is a pressing organizational concern. Our study draws attention to the underexamined phenomenon of the exit of foreign directors from their host countries during geopolitical tensions. Theorizing from a sensemaking logic, we posit that the deterioration of bilateral political relations serves as an unexpected event that activates foreign directors’ schemas for dual identity conflict, propelling them to react behaviorally to such identity threats by exiting the board in the host country. In addition, we further posit that the sensemaking process is contingent on how the foreign director draws cues from the embedded social context, including organizational identification, socialization and homophily effect, and socioemotional climate. Our empirical analyses from a sample of 1,014 foreign directors in China from 1999 to 2018 provide strong and robust support for the hypotheses. This study instills important theoretical insights into the transcending impacts of international relations and geopolitics, international governance and foreign directors, and the situated cognitive process of sensemaking regarding the intertwining effects of cognitive schema and social contexts.

When UK academics decide to disclose mental distress to employers in the HEI workplace: identity conflict, organisational context and the need for systemic change

ABSTRACT UK academics currently report increased workplace stress and workload, with decreased work-life balance, but often feel reluctant to disclose mental distress. We distributed an anonymous online qualitative survey to explore factors which lead academics to decide whether to disclose mental distress in the workplace. Thirty-one participants responded, providing qualitative data about institutional and psychosocial factors that informed academics’ decision to disclose, supplemented by information on role position. Data was analysed thematically. Our study reports the individual struggles of academics as they manage their professional identity alongside the demands of the HEI workplace and explores the individual processes of identity conflict that leads to a re-construction of the professional identity after disclosing mental distress. Our findings reinforce the evidence that this decision occurs within the context of an increasingly business-focussed work culture of over-commitment and strain in this sector in which academics are made responsible for their own wellbeing. These findings lead us to recommend further research into disclosure using the lens of identity integration. We endorse important systemic changes by suggesting that universities need to consider factors contributing to poor mental wellbeing as structural issues, which require institutional action. Furthermore, we highlight the need for HEIs to value the hybrid identity of those who are both academics and experts-by-experience. Finally, we advocate for universities to adopt the social model of disability, which promotes inclusion and equality of opportunity for people who experience mental distress. The small study sample size makes the findings tentative, but they are nevertheless significant and intriguing.

Regret, Guilt and Frustration: Japanese Career Women’s Persistent Identity Conflict

Regret, Guilt and Frustration: Japanese Career Women’s Persistent Identity Conflict

How Can Sexual and Gender Minority Latter-day Saints Resolve Identity Conflict and Improve Their Mental Health? Results From a 2- to 4-Year Longitudinal Study

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) clients who are raised in conservative religious traditions often find themselves caught between competing narratives about how to best improve mental health and resolve conflict between their sexual/gender and religious identities. In an effort to guide these individuals and the therapists who serve them, we present longitudinal data from 359 sexual and gender minority individuals raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (i.e., SGM Latter-day Saints). These data, gathered at baseline in 2020 or 2022 and then again 2 and/or 4 years later in 2022 and/or 2024, answer the question “What can I do today that is most likely to yield positive mental health and conflict resolution in the future?” All analyses were preregistered prior to data collection of the most recent longitudinal wave. Bivariate analyses between baseline variables and depression/conflict resolution in 2024 suggest that (a) self-compassion, (b) social support, (c) authentic religious engagement, (d) reduced internalized homonegativity, (e) outness, and (f) seeing masturbation as more acceptable were all related to subsequent alleviated depression or enhanced conflict resolution. Regression analyses conducted separately for conflict resolution and depression suggest that only self-compassion, internalized homonegativity, and authentic religious engagement emerged as indicators of subsequent depression or conflict resolution. These findings suggest that the most important actions SGM individuals can take today to have better mental health and less conflict in 2 or 4 years include developing compassionate stances toward themselves, reducing stigmatizing views of themselves, and engaging authentically with their faith (if applicable).