Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Deaf Culture: Bicultural Identity Integration's Effect On Self-Esteem, Jessica E. Ritzmann, Jonathan S. Gore

Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Bicultural Identity Integration (BII) is the result of how much a bicultural individual may feel that their two cultures cohesively work together, such as Chinese and American cultures (Benet-Martínez & Haritatos, 2005). BII’s effect on self-esteem has previously been looked at with immigrant families but has not really been looked at in regard to that of Deaf individuals with Deaf culture and hearing culture. The current study’s goal was to investigate the relationship between BII and a Deaf individuals self-esteem. It was hypothesized that 1) a Deaf individual’s level of BII will be positively correlated with their self-esteem. 2) those …