Erik Erikson’s theoretical writings on identity have provided a rich foundation upon which decades of research on identity development have been built. However, literature is lacking regarding adolescents who are aware that they lack knowledge about the self (i.e., values, likes, and dislikes) to the extent that they are stuck and directionless, and therefore unable to engage in the process of identity formation, what we refer to as a state of “lostness”…

It is well established that experiences of racial discrimination pose a significant health risk to ethnic minority youth. In this article, we introduce a new concept, racial uplifts, to capture a largely neglected countertheme in the scientific literature—the nature and processes underlying salubrious race-related experiences. We report on data from a mixed-method study of everyday racial uplifts in the lives of Asian American youth…

When you think of sex education, the first thing that comes to mind may be a classroom full of giggling and blushing middle school students. But there is clear evidence that the foundations for sex education—and much of what determines adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior—comes from parents and guardians at home…

Although epidemiological studies and community surveys of Asian Americans have found that lifetime occurrences of racial discrimination are associated with increased risk for psychological morbidity, little is known about how exposure to racial discrimination is patterned in everyday life. Extrapolating from previous qualitative research (Sue et al., 2007), this study presents data on the prevalence and psychological correlates of everyday racial microaggressions that reflect the Asian American experience…

The benefits of positive parent–adolescent relationships + effective communication on sexual risk have been demonstrated among minority parents + teenagers. However, there is need for illuminating how structural inequalities, such as economic disadvantage and being an ethnic/racial minority, shape parents’ approaches to adolescent sexuality. Schalet’s cultural framework describes White middle-income Dutch parents’ ‘normalization’ vs. White middle-income American parents’ ‘dramatization’ of teen sexuality, approaches which she argues contribute to differences in sexual health outcomes in the two countries…