Re/Formation and Identity

This innovative book applies contemporary and emergent theories of identity formation to timely questions of identity re/formation and development in immigrant families across diverse ethnicities and age groups. Researchers from across the globe examine the ways in which immigrants from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America dynamically adjust, adapt, and resist aspects of their identities in their host countries as a form of resilience. The book provides a multidisciplinary approach to studying the multidimensional complexities of identity development and immigration and offers critical insights on the experiences of immigrant families. Key areas of coverage include: Factors that affect identity formation, readjustment, and maintenance, including individual differences and social environments. Influences of intersecting immigrant ecologies such as family, community, and complex multidimensions of culture on identity development. Current identity theories and their effectiveness at addressing issues of ethnicity, culture, and immigration. Research challenges to studying various forms of identity.  Re/Formation and Identity: The Intersectionality of Development, Culture, and Immigration is an essential resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, professionals, and policymakers in the fields of developmental, social, and cross-cultural psychology, parenting and family studies, social work, and all interrelated disciplines.

Deborah J. Johnson, PhD, is Professor of Human Development and Family Studies and the Director of the Diversity Research Network at Michigan State University, U.S. Her research explores racially and culturally related development, parental racial socialization and coping, and cultural adjustment from early childhood through emerging adulthood, among domestic, immigrant and international children and youth. She holds a deep interest in child rights perspectives and vulnerable children globally emphasizing themes of resilience, cultural adjustment and identity transformation. In her longitudinal studies of Sudanese refugees who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied children, themes of resilience including ongoing adjustment, identity, schooling and sense of purpose have been explored extensively.  Recent research addresses gender and interpersonal violence across developmental periods. Other collaborations investigate the relations among identity and racial socialization in contextswhere social history and current public policy impact the experience of oppression. This research also includes Indigenous Australians and Roma youth. In Western Australia, Dr. Johnson has served as adjunct professor at Murdoch University, a fellow at the Telethon Institute for Child Health and Research, Research Council member for the Pindi Pindi Aboriginal Research Center and was honored with a Raine Fellowship (Australia). She has published over 70 articles, books and monographs. Her two most recent books for Springer include Fitzgerald, Johnson, Qin, Villarruel, and Norder (Eds.) (2019) Handbook of Children and Prejudice: Integrating, Research, Practice and Policy and Johnson, Agbenyiga, and Hitchcock (2013) Vulnerable Children: Global Challenges in Education, Health, Well-Being, and Child Rights. 

Susan S. Chuang, PhD, is Professor at the University of Guelph, Canada. Her research focuses on parenting and fathering of young children in various countries (Canada, China, Hong Kong, Paraguay, Taiwan, and the U.S.). Her second line of research examines families and immigration, collaborating with various national organizations in Canada. In this area, she was the lead editor of two issues, Sex Roles (2009) and the Journal of Family Psychology (2009) which all focused on issues and challenges that immigrant children, youth, and families faced. She co-edited, On New Shores: Understanding Immigrant Fathers in North America (2008) and Immigrant Children: Change, Adaptation, and Cultural Transformation (2011) as lead editor for Lexington Books. She is the Series Editor for Springer’s Immigrant Family Research. As lead editor, she has edited three books, including Gender Roles in Immigrant Families (2013), Parental Roles and Relationships in Immigrant Families: An International Approach (2018), and Asian Families in Canada and the United States: Implications for Mental Health and Well-Being (2021). She organized six international conferences on immigrant families (On New Shores conferences). A third line of research explores intimate partner violence (IPV) against men and fathers, high conflict situations, and child access/custody issues. With a federal grant (2021), she is partnered with a men’s organization to further explore the complexities of IPV, help-seeking behaviors, and community support. Lastly, she is investigating cannabis use among Chinese and immigrant Chinese families in Canada and China. This four-year federal grant (2021 – 2024) will explore youth’s and parents’ perceptions and stigma on cannabis use, parent-youth relationships, and mental health. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Family Psychology and the Journal of Adolescent Research. She has provided numerous free youth and parenting workshops in various communities. 

Jenny Glozman, PhD, is an individual and couple therapist in Toronto, Canada.  She served as a reviewer for the Journal of Adolescent Research in 2015 and 2016, and for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy conference in 2012 and 2015. She also served as a co-reviewer for the International Journal of Psychology in 2014, Parenting: Science and Practice in 2014, and the Society for Research in Child Development conference, Parenting Panel in 2012. Her area of research is identity development of immigrant youth with a focus on the role of context including families, peers, and communities.