Portrayals of Chinese-born Adoptees’ Psychological Empowerment in Storybooks: A Narrative Analysis

• In Event: 3181 - Section on Asia and Asian America Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 03. Ethnic Identities

Abstract

Social scientists have been encouraged to examine identity/relational themes in children’s literature, given that such literature can influence perceptions of self and others. Qualitative narrative analysis studies of topics such as gender roles and family membership have been informative, but often lacked focus on specific cultural/ethnic identities or psychological processes. The present study examined representations of psychological empowerment within children’s storybooks about Chinese-born adopted daughters. The sample was comprised of 38 books which were written at a preschool-kindergarten level and focused exclusively on Chinese girls who were adopted by US families. The researchers utilized Spreitzer’s (1995) empowerment model as a conceptual guide for the data analysis. Spreitzer identified four dimensions of empowerment (meaning, self-determination, competence, impact). The researchers created a coding scheme (based on descriptions of the dimensions); this scheme was used to detect whether the empowerment processes were evident in the storybooks. Thus, the researchers used a directional coding approach (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). The results revealed that no single book contained all of the dimensions. However, all four dimensions were detected across multiple books. These findings suggested that empowerment processes are salient to the portrayal of individual identity and interpersonal relationships in Chinese-American adoptive family literature. The results highlighted the value of qualitative research methods as a means of understanding phenomenology in one form of social voice (adoptive stories for very young children and their families). Recommendations for future research are noted.

Authors

• Jacki Fitzpatrick, Texas Tech University

• Erin Kostina-Ritchey