Understanding the Relations Between Family Cultural Socialization and Bicultural Identity Integration in Burmese College Students of Refugee Background

Burmese refugees represent one of the largest resettled populations in the United States in recent decades, but their postresettlement adjustment has scarcely been studied. Although resettlement presents a variety of opportunities and challenges for many refugee families, such as learning to navigate between heritage and mainstream cultures, the bicultural experiences of youth of refugee background are marginally understood. Considering that making sense of one's relationship to culture and race/ethnicity is a central developmental task during adolescence and emerging adulthood, particularly for ethnic-racial minority and bicultural youth, identifying the contributing factors to bicultural identity integration (BII) that may promote bicultural competence is needed. To address this gap, we examined potential links between family ethnic and mainstream socialization and two distinct dimensions of BII in a sample of Burmese college students of refugee background. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that family ethnic socialization was positively correlated with bicultural blendedness, but not bicultural harmony. Family mainstream socialization was not found to be related to our outcome variables. In the broader context of postresettlement adjustment, parents' socialization efforts are important in enabling Burmese refugee youth to see their Burmese and American cultural identities as overlapping in the face of threats to their developing bicultural competence.