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Abstract
This narrative inquiry combines black feminist thought and symbolic interactionism to provide a conceptual framework for an exploration of the intergenerational influences on ethnic identity development for African American women. Nine African American women, grouped into three families, who represent three different generations were interviewed individually and as a family to examine the individual and shared meaning of their ethnic identities. This study sought to answer four research questions: What is the process by which African American women within the same family, arrive at a shared meaning of their ethnicity? What is the process by which individual African American women, of the same family, construct meaning of their ethnicity independently of the meaning shared by other women of that family? How does this shared and individual meaning change across generations? What are the processes by which these shared and individual meanings are constructed, learned, and taught intergenerationally? Nine individual and three family in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted, using the construction of cultural genograms as photo elicitation, with the participants of this study. Two types of analyses were used narrative analysis and analysis of narratives in order to construct individual narratives and to highlight themes across families. Black feminist thought was used in analysis and in re-presenting the narratives in order to reverence the voices of the women and to allow their stories to be told in their own voices. Symbolic interactionism helped to explain and explore the process of meaning-making inherent in these womens processes of ethnic identity development. These themes and a discussion of pertinent literature are included in order to highlight this studys contribution to the current family studies literature. A discussion of future research and marriage and family therapy clinical implications are addressed, along with the strengths and limitations of this study.