Supporting Asian Deaf Young People and their Families: the role of professionals and services

This paper discusses how Asian deaf young people and their families engage with welfare provision. Our findings, based on group and individual interviews with young deaf people and individual interviews with their parents, explore the assumptions underlying current provision and how they influence the options available to young people and their families. The paper suggests that the welfare state exerts a form of social control where professional help, although well intended, may disempowers Asian deaf people by privileging 'oralism' over sign language, and western norms over other cultural values. On the other hand, positive constructions of deafness privilege Deaf identity while failing to accommodate ethnic or religious diversity, resulting in Asian deaf young people and their families having an ambivalent relationship with the Deaf community. We argue that services need to recognise and address the reasons for this ambivalence if they are to adequately engage Asian deaf people and their families.     

ETHNIC,FAMILY, AND SOCIAL CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON ASIAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS' RELIGIOSITY

In recent years, a number of excellent ethnographic and qualitative studies have signaled a growing interest among scientists in immigrants and their religious practices. Few large-scale studies, however, have examined the religious practices and family religious context of Asian immigrant adolescents. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a large nationally representative survey, we explore the important associations between ethnic and family contexts and Asian American adolescents' religiosity. Specifically, we find that first generation Asian American adolescents report higher levels of public and private aspects of religiosity than their native-born counterparts; Filipino and Korean immigrant adolescents report higher religiosity than Chinese immigrant children; however, the most important factor influencing Asian immigrant children's religiosity is their parent's religious practices and the concordance between parent and adolescent's religious affiliations. Protestant Asian adolescents who are also from a Protestant family report higher religiosity than Buddhist or Catholic adolescents who are from a Buddhist or Catholic family. Implications of these patterns for the intergenerational transmission of religious faith and other aspects of immigrant religious practices are discussed.     

Where Do Our Children Fit In?: White Mothering of Asian Children and the Construction of Racial and Ethnic Identities

Abstract

This research investigates white adoptive mothers' mothering related to their adopted children's racial and ethnic socialization. Drawing upon in-depth face-to face interviews with thirty-eight women who have adopted children from China, South Korea or the Philippines, this paper first examines why white mothers de cided to adopt an Asian child and then explores mothering strategies for deal ing with their children's racial and ethnic identity formation. The study contrasts "colorblind mothering," which I also call the "assimilative fitting-in strategy," and "color-conscious mothering," also referred to as the "birth-culture fitting-in strategy." This study also found significant variations in color-conscious adoptive mothers' mothering based in part on the level of the family's embracement of the adopted child's birth culture and on the level of social networking with and outreach to not only other adoptive families but also Asian or Asian American communities. Finally this study critically reviews how race matters to white adoptive mothers.     

Asian Transnational Families in New Zealand: Dynamics and Challenges

Since the 1990s, Asia has emerged as the major contributor of migration flows into New Zealand. Settler migration, tourism, international business and more recently, international education make up the diverse flows of Asian peoples into the country. This paper explores the changing dynamics of Asian transnational families over the last two decades, with a special focus on the experiences of young people within these families. In the early 1990s, bi-local families were commonly known as "astronaut" families, in which one or both parents returned to their countries of origin to work, leaving their children to be educated in New Zealand. Over time the structures of these families have changed, as many young migrants relocated back to their former homeland or re-migrated to a third country, while "astronaut parents" rejoined their spouses either in the origin or destination. More recently, the educational migration of international students from countries in Asia has given rise to another form of transnational family, in which young people enter New Zealand as international students and some subsequently become residents. In this paper, the experiences of these young people are explored within the wider context of family strategies for maximising benefits through spatially extended networks on the one hand, and government initiatives and immigration policy changes that have been taking place in New Zealand since the 1990s on the other.     

Self-Identified Traditional,Moderate, and Liberal Catholics: Movement-Based Identities or Something Else?

Through qualitative analyses of 50 in-depth interviews with Catholics in three Midwestern cities, I investigate the role of religious movement organizations in the formation of Catholic identities. I find that movement organizations and elites tend to have little direct impact on the formation of Catholic parishioners’ identities in my sample. While movements’ disruptions and interactions with media are useful for generating debate and wider recognition of religious disagreements, my respondents are not usually socialized by nor do they identify with familiar movements when they call themselves traditional, moderate, and liberal. Most are uninterested in and unacquainted with movement organizations and publications. Instead, their religious identification is a form of religious mapping, which reflects their self-understood position vis-à-vis recognized cultural conflicts within the larger religious community. While movements play a limited role, I argue that we should be wary of conceptualizing Catholic identities as products of movement groups or parachurch networks since most Catholic identity-work occurs within families and parishes, as opposed to movements or parachurch organizations.

Freedom and struggling openly in psychotherapy: A qualitative inquiry with LGBQ young adults from religious families

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) young people from religious families are at increased risk of family rejection, poor mental health outcomes, and are overrepresented in mental health services. This article describes a two‐part qualitative study aimed at exploring the experiences of LGBQ young adults from religious families in psychotherapy, identifying positive and negative psychotherapy experiences, and understanding the influence of family and religion on the psychotherapy experience. Data were collected through a web‐based survey (n = 77) and interviews (n = 7) with LGBQ young adults (ages 18–25) from religious families. The study followed an interpretative phenomenological approach. Integrated results found often invisible, relational therapy processes, and religious discourses as significant to LGBQ young people who seek psychotherapy. Implications for future research, effective systemic family therapy practices with LGBQ young people from religious families, and a critique on ethical and legal limits of confidentiality with policy implications are outlined.     

RELIGIOUS REFERENCE GROUPS AND THE PERSISTENCE OF NORMATIVE BEHAVIOR: AN EMPIRICAL TEST

Reference groups and significant others are vitally important in both the formation and the persistence or change of normative as well as deviant behavior patterns. Thus one's initial religious beliefs and behavior (or lack thereof) reflect the socializing influence of the family. However, the situation may change when young people leave home for education or work, as demonstrated by research that shows decreases in religious beliefs or church attendance when young people leave home to attend college. In contrast to the pattern whereby religiosity declines in a college or university environment, we maintain that students who develop close ties with others who are religious, especially in a highly religious community, will maintain the same patterns of high commitment developed in their families. Specifically, we hypothesize that religious beliefs and participation will be positively related to (1) parents' religious beliefs and practices and (2) current friends' religious beliefs and participation. These hypotheses were tested with a sample of college students living on campus (n = 339). The data support the argument that students' current religious beliefs and behavior are related to both their parents' religiosity and the reinforcing effects of the religiosity of their current friends.     

Beyond the Nuclear Family? Familism and Gender Ideology in Diverse Religious Communities

Religious familism, or ideology about "the good family," has been central to the culture and practice of local religious communities in the United States. Recent research has suggested that the "Ozzie and Harriet" familism dominant among mainstream religious groups in the 1950s religious expansion has remained formative for many local religious communities in the intervening decades. This research suggests that religious familism shapes how gender is symbolized and enacted in local religious communities and leads to differences in the meaning of religious participation for contemporary men and women. However, this work has been based largely on studies of white, middle-class religious communities. In this article, we analyze the relationship between family ideology and gender in three congregations chosen to exemplify those social locations where we would expect considerable distance from the 1950s "Ozzie and Harriet" ideal—one Hispanic Catholic parish, one African-American congregation in the black Church tradition, and one white liberal Protestant congregation that has adopted an open and affirming stance toward homosexuality and same-sex unions. We find considerable innovation in family-oriented rhetoric and ministry, and a range of gendered practices that prove considerably more inclusive than those found in previous research. We also find considerable symbolic affirmation of the value of more traditional gender roles and practices, particularly in the realm of the family, than we expected to find. We explore the implications of these findings for how we understand the production of gender in local religious communities and for the capacity of local religious communities to become truly gender-inclusive spaces.     

Religious Rhetoric and the Comic Frame in The Simpsons

Considered by many secular and religious critics alike to be the most "religious television show" currently being aired, The Simpsons reflects a commitment to satirizing the pietistic and hypocritical elements of American religious expression, but it does not attack the bases of American religious faiths. Utilizing the Burkean rhetorical concepts of comic frames consisting of an overlapping continuum of comedy, satire, and burlesque, individual characters on the show are evaluated for their rhetorical capacities to make us laugh as well as to make us aware of the impact of religion on our society.     

Measuring Religious Identities in Surveys

The purpose of this article is to acquaint the broader publicopinion research audience with what has been a salient issuewithin the community of scholars of religion. We address thequestion of how best to conceptualize and measure religiousidentities in research on contemporary American society. Weconsider the main approaches to the measurement of religiousidentification with regard to their backgrounds, their assumptionsabout the importance of understanding religious identities inhistorically relevant terms, and the practical considerationsof survey measurement. Using data from the General Social Survey,particularly recent innovative efforts to obtain informationon subjective association with particular religious traditionsand/or movements (e.g., Pentecostal, fundamentalist, evangelical,mainline, or liberal Protestant), we compare the two main approaches:the traditional "denominational" approach, where religious identitiesare assumed to be associated with religious denominations, andthe subjective approach, where religious identities are assumedto be captured by a set of "nondenominational" reference categorieslinked to particular historical religious traditions or socialmovements. We conclude that both approaches have substantialpredictive validity, and the most effective strategy for futureresearch may be one that uses a combination of approaches, ratherthan one that relies entirely on a single method of measurement.     

Health and the education of children from racial/ethnic minority and immigrant families

Building on a conceptual model of the transition to elementary school, this study explored the role of health in the early cognitive achievement of children from various racial/ethnic minority and immigrant families by applying multilevel modeling to data from a nationally representative sample of American kindergarteners. Whites tended to have the best physical health before transitioning to first grade. Children from immigrant Latino/a and Asian families had the worst physical health but the best mental health. Compared to white children from native families, these health differentials partially explained the lower math achievement and achievement growth of black children (whether from native or immigrant families) in first grade as well as the lower math achievement of children from Latino/a immigrant families and the lower achievement growth of children from Asian immigrant families during this period.     

Sexual Minority Adults: A National Survey on Depression,Religious Fundamentalism,Parent Relationship Quality & Acceptance

Sexual minority persons from religious families may experience low acceptance by parents, however, little is known about the relationship of religiosity and parent relationships on mental health into adulthood. This study sought to test a moderated mediation model predicting depression based on religious fundamentalism, parent acceptance, and parent‐child relationship quality. Sexual minority adult participants (n = 384) from across the U.S. completed a web‐based, anonymous survey. Results found a conditional indirect effect of religious fundamentalism on depression through parent acceptance with the parent‐child relationship quality moderating the relationship between parent acceptance and depression. This was significant up to age 52. Clinical implications and future research with sexual minority adults and their families are explored.     

Dispersion to Oceania and developed Asia

Since most of South Asian Tibetan refugees have not secured formal immigration status in their host countries, their dispersion has expanded to other continents. Compared to those Tibetans living in South Asia, Europe and North America, Tibetans in Australia and New Zealand emigrated there on their own, married citizens, or went to study, work, or engage in religious or cultural activities. Tibetan diasporization in Oceania has proven successful. There are only around 60 Tibetans residing in Japan, some of them hold a Taiwanese (Republic of China) passport, which makes it easier to obtain a Japanese visa, and others are fulltime staff members of the liaison office of the Dalai Lama in Japan. Under Seoul's stringent immigration laws, less than 20 Tibetans reside in South Korea, mostly on work visas. Tibetan exiles and their supporters often protest to the Visiting Chinese Leaders or Embassy of China in Oceania and developed Asian countries.     

“Being Indian,” “Being American”

Summary

This is a cross-cultural study that seeks to understand an aspect of Asian Indian women's realities by exploring concepts such as: attitudes toward gender roles, level of stress in their lives, and their ethnic identity. It compares Asian Indian women raised in the U.S. (n = 45), with women born and raised in India (n = 50) and with European American women in the U.S. (n = 50). Additionally, excerpts from in-depth interviews with Asian Indian women in the U.S. are included. Most Asian Indian women in this study feel that they are both Indian and American and feel the two can be very well combined. However, they have problems with their families for not being Indian enough, especially on issues regarding marriage, career choice, and dating. The study found that “being Indian” might be different for the first generation Indian immigrants and the Asian Indian women who were born and raised in the U.S. These Asian Indian women are striving to claim a new identity for themselves, one which is both Indian and American.     

Combining Egalitarian Working Lives with Traditional Attitudes: Gender Role Attitudes in Taiwan,Japan, and Korea

In a simple theoretical framework, egalitarian gender role attitudes emerge as more and more women participate in the labor market. Most advanced Western nations enjoy relatively gender-egalitarian working environments, and consequently more egalitarian gender attitudes than their East Asian counterparts. Women in East Asian societies, on the other hand, are said to support both the conditions resulting in stagnant female labor-force participation and traditional attitudes toward gender roles. In Taiwan, however, women are more economically active than in two other East Asian societies—Japan and South Korea—even though women in all three societies favor the traditional gender division of labor. Thus, in Taiwan, women experiencing inconsistencies between their active working lives and their traditional values. This study hypothesizes that this inconsistency, or the coexistence of the old and the new, is reflected in the very mind-set of women. Using comparative data from the 2006 East Asian Social Survey, we analyzed the gap between responses to questions on gender attitudes in relation to working conditions, and other general gender role attitudes. We found there were significant differences in the size of these gaps. Taiwanese women expressed more egalitarian views insofar as the questions were concerned with practical economic interests, while they retained their basic traditional attitudes towards gender roles in their homes. This gap is larger in Taiwan than in Japan or South Korea.     

Child health and parental paid work

We ask how the paid work of Canadian married mothers and fathers is affected when a child has a physical/mental condition or health problem that leads to restrictions in daily activities. Using the Statistics Canada National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, we find that married mothers of children with disabilities are less likely to engage in paid work and/or work fewer paid hours per week. No statistically significant changes in paid work participation or hours are apparent for fathers of the same children. We find, moreover, evidence that the degree of specialization within families increases when there is a child with a disability. These responses are consistent with traditional gender roles within families, and may make sense as a ‘household’ coping strategy. However, such a division of labor may generate economic vulnerability for mothers compared to fathers.     

Asian women workers in Kuwait

The author examines trends in the roles of immigrant Asian women workers in Kuwait, using data from published censuses and reports and from three national-level surveys conducted in 1977-1979, 1983, and 1986-1987. "The study deals separately with the two major types of migrants: the domestic servants and the clerical and professional (or semiprofessional) workers.... The policies of sending countries and of Kuwait are discussed to reach some conclusions about the likely future patterns of migration of Asian women workers to Kuwait."     

Learning Religion: Exploring Young People’s Participation Through Timespace and Mediation at Confirmation Camp

This article explores how material tools mediate affordances for and constraints on young people’s participation in the religious practice of confirmation. Learning is understood as a process of participation in a religious practice in which most participants enter as subalterns. The material established by ethnographic fieldwork from two confirmation camps is analyzed, and the findings suggest that time and space as unified features played a significant role in opening up or closing off participation.     

Religious Freedoms versus Gender Equality: Faith-Based Organizations, Muslim Minorities, and Islamic Headscarves in the New Europe

The intersections of gender and civil society in the formersocialist countries of Eastern Europe have been examined primarilythrough the lens of Western Aid to support feminist nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs). What has received less scholarly attentionis the growing number of NGOs advocating for a return to moreconservative gender roles and more restricted public roles forwomen. Many of these organizations are so-called "faith-based"organizations (FBOs), and are bound to particular religiousdenominations. In this article, I will examine the presenceof Islamic FBOs in Bulgaria and how they mobilize a liberal"rights" discourse to justify practices that could be locallyinterpreted as being oppressive to women. Their insistence onguaranteeing women's "right to choose" certain religious practicesputs feminists and women's NGOs in an increasingly difficultposition.     

Women in Bangladesh:

Women's lives in Bangladesh are governed by a combination of religious, customary and secular law, as well as social class. In customary practice, the interaction of Islam and Hiduism in southern Asia has resulted in the adoption of the most restrictive aspects of each religion with respect to the status of women. Secular law formally recognizes equal rights for women, but undermines this recognition by special provisions which treat women as dependent legal entities. But whereas poor, rural women have few opportunities for change, middle- and upper-class women are beginning to emerge, in small but significant ways, from traditional roles.