Culture or race? Phenotype and cultural identify development in minority Australian adolescents

Abstract

The study addressed cultural identity in minority culture adolescents living in rural and remote regions of North Queensland, Australia. The stage-wise nature of cultural identity construction as proposed by Phinney (1993) was of particular interest. The author found that minority culture American adolescents tend to undergo a process of exploration of their cultural roots leading to achieved identification following self-challenging experiences such as racism. Of interest was to clarify whether minority culture Australian adolescents undergo a similar process. Phinney's (1992) predicted relationship between racism and identity, when mediated by active cultural background exploration was supported for visibly ethnic adolescents only. The study concluded that Phinney's model succeeds in predicting racial identity, but not necessarily ethnic or cultural identity.