Relation of Two Cultural Identities of Armenian-Americans

Abstract

The gap between the two cultural identities of 37 female and 43 male Armenian-American teen-agers attending Armenian schools was studied. The effects of ethnic involvement and residency status (native-born and recent immigrant) were examined. The absolute difference between the Armenian and American identity scores defined the gap between the two cultural identities. It was hypothesized that more ethnic involvement and recent immigrant status would show greater gap. A 2 × 2 analysis of variance of ethnic involvement and residency status produced significant main effects in the expected directions and no interaction. The ethnically more involved and the recent immigrants showed greater gap in their American and Armenian identities than the ethnically less involved and the native-born, respectively. Some phenomenological explanations for the observed effects were considered.