Familial Allocentrism and Ethnic Identity Salience Among Asian Indians Living in the United States

The family has been viewed as a unique social unit in that it is usually the most salient in-group (Lay, Fairlie, Jackson, Ricci, Eisenberg, Sato, Teeaar, & Melamud, 1998). We often learn about ourselves in relation to others in the world through interactions with family members. Many of the identities and corresponding role expectations we learn to adopt directly relate to the position we occupy in our family. Oftentimes, it is the family that serves to orient an individual to his or her ethnic identity. This study explored one's collectivistic identity in the context of family (familial allocentrism) as a predictive variable for the degree of Indian identity salience among Asian Indians in the United States. The main hypothesis posited that individuals who view themselves as interdependent or as collectively part of their family will report higher levels of Indian identity salience than those who feel more independent. Other variables that were examined included years spent in the United States and age at migration (for immigrants), as well as differences between first- and second-generation Indians. It was hypothesized that immigrants who arrived at an earlier age or had spent more years in the United States would display relatively lower collectivistic tendencies and lower Indian identity salience than those arriving later in life or spending fewer years in the United States. Lastly, it was hypothesized that second-generation Indians would be less collectively inclined and experience less Indian identity salience than their first-generation counterparts. Overall, results indicated that familial allocentrism was predictive of Indian identity salience. Limitations and implications are discussed.;Keywords: Asian Indian identity, collectivism, allocentrism, family, immigrants.