Longing for a Balanced Life: Voices of Chinese American/Immigrant Adolescents from Boston, Massachusetts, USA
This chapter presents the voices from a high achieving and highly stressed group of Chinese American/immigrant adolescents (C A/IAs) We chose this group for the study because their strong grade point averages and standardized test scores could obscure their high risks for distress, consequently their psychological needs and struggles are often neglected. Through focus groups, ecomaps, and interviews, 33 C A/IAs of two age groups, 10 12 and 15 17, 11 boys and 22 girls, shared their experiences of daily struggles to meet multiple demands, coordinate conflicting expectations as well as a longing for understanding from parents, teachers, and others. We used the uniformed method of coding and analysis of data described in Chap. 2 to analyze the verbatim transcripts from the focus groups and interviews and ecomap drawings. Across age and gender, a loud and clear voice came out from many responses: Reduce stress and return to a balanced life. C A/IAs told us about their sources of stress and support as well as their coping strategies and how they would help each other. They also depicted ambivalent relationships (source of both support and stress) in their home and school environment through their ecomaps. In addition, C A/IAs provided comprehensive and practical suggestions to parents, teachers, school counselors/psychologists, and schools/communities on how interventions could be tailored to this population. These suggestions should inform teachers, parents, school counselors, school psychologists, and other professionals in developing a culturally responsive promotion of mental health for C A/IAs and other culturally diverse students.