| This is an exploratory study of Asian American college students' civic engagement. Using grounded theory analysis and a population-specific approach, this study discovered the meanings of civic engagement from the perspective of Asian American college students and developed a theory to explain Asian American college students' civic engagement. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore whether family, school, and community would influence participants' decision to participate in civic activities and whether Asian Americans' collective historical, cultural, social, and political experiences would have an impact on their civic engagement. Findings suggest that Asian American college students defined civic engagement as community involvement for two different purposes: 1) to help those who are in need and 2) to create social and systemic change. The theory that I developed includes four categories of facilitators and barriers to Asian American college students' civic engagement. The four categories are 1) structural factors, 2) social capital factors, 3) acculturation gap factors, and 4) identity factors. The theory also identifies five categories of consequences of Asian American college students' civic engagement: 1) career-related skills, 2) leadership skills, 3) social and emotional skills, 4) sense of belonging to school, and 5) knowledge of social issues/commitment to civic engagement. By identifying how contextual factors (i.e. family, peers, school and community) interact with cultural and sociopolitical factors to influence Asian American college students' pathways to civic engagement, the present study sheds light on the complexity of Asian American college students' civic development and suggests that research needs to examine Asian American college students' civic engagement across multiple ecological contexts and consider the cultural and sociopolitical experiences of Asian American college students. |
