Date of Award

6-1997

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Dr. Douglas Davidson

Second Advisor

Dr. Tyler

Third Advisor

Dr. James C. Petersen

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

This thesis explores the experiences of Japanese children and adolescents who reside in the United States as a consequence of their parents' jobs and examines how they adapted to a local society and how their cultural identities were affected by living in the United States before establishing stable identities. This study was completed by relating existing literature to interviews with a sample of Japanese children and adolescents, their mothers, and their teachers who reside in a Midwestern urban areas.

Experiences of the Japanese children and adolescents were examined in terms of their English language skills, Japanese language skills, family lives, school lives both at local schools and Japanese supplementary schools, cultural identities and adaptation problems.

The conclusion was that half of the Japanese children and adolescents among respondents adapted well to the local society, and half of them did not adapt well to the local society. The problematic point is that they have to return to Japan and re-adapt to the Japanese system with American identities. In addition, certain problems with Japanese cultural values related to diversity and Japanese education were revealed from this research.

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