2.1.7. Ethnic Identity, Homophily and Sense of Belonging
Although minor, there has been studies conducted on the relationship between ethnic identity, homophily and sense of belonging. In one mixed method study self identification, connectedness and racial-ethnic identity was explore among 695 high school students ages 13-14 years old of New Zealand. The results showed ethnic identity to be important to adolescents. Adolescents with high ethnic identity reported that it allowed them to that they were able to connect with others through knowing their identity. Apart from that, in knowing their identity and finding similarities in peers allowed them to feel a sense of belonging (Webber, McKinley, & Hattie, 2013). Another study looked at the inter-minority …show more content…
However, there are noticeable gaps in this field of literature. Firstly, there has been a lack of studies conducted in Asian countries. Most of the studies are conducted in Western or international countries. Malaysia being a multicultural country consists of a sample that is unique. Secondly, the operational definition for the variables varies from the current research. For an instance, some studies focuses on gender homophily or appearance homophily however, the current research focused on attitude homophily. Third, although there has been some researches which studied the relationship of the variables that the current research examined, quite a number of them have retrieved their data from previously conducted researches, hence their findings may not truly represent the current society. Fourthly, a group that has been forgotten is the young adults. There have been numerous of studies conducting on children, adolescents and even adults but the young adults have not been examined fully. Hence, with these gaps in mind, the researcher hopes to fill up the gap and explore the relationship between ethnic identity and sense of belonging mediated by homophily among young
Although minor, there has been studies conducted on the relationship between ethnic identity, homophily and sense of belonging. In one mixed method study self identification, connectedness and racial-ethnic identity was explore among 695 high school students ages 13-14 years old of New Zealand. The results showed ethnic identity to be important to adolescents. Adolescents with high ethnic identity reported that it allowed them to that they were able to connect with others through knowing their identity. Apart from that, in knowing their identity and finding similarities in peers allowed them to feel a sense of belonging (Webber, McKinley, & Hattie, 2013). Another study looked at the inter-minority …show more content…
However, there are noticeable gaps in this field of literature. Firstly, there has been a lack of studies conducted in Asian countries. Most of the studies are conducted in Western or international countries. Malaysia being a multicultural country consists of a sample that is unique. Secondly, the operational definition for the variables varies from the current research. For an instance, some studies focuses on gender homophily or appearance homophily however, the current research focused on attitude homophily. Third, although there has been some researches which studied the relationship of the variables that the current research examined, quite a number of them have retrieved their data from previously conducted researches, hence their findings may not truly represent the current society. Fourthly, a group that has been forgotten is the young adults. There have been numerous of studies conducting on children, adolescents and even adults but the young adults have not been examined fully. Hence, with these gaps in mind, the researcher hopes to fill up the gap and explore the relationship between ethnic identity and sense of belonging mediated by homophily among young