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Ethnic Background and Identity among Greek-Australian High School Pupils1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2015

James A. Athanasou
James A. Athanasou*
Affiliation:
Department of Industrial Relations and Employment, N.S.W.
*
Dept. of Industrial Relations & Employment, Division of Employment & Training, 1, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, N.S.W. 2010
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Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of the conditions which underly the functioning of young Greek-Australians in their society, and the relationship between their ethnic background and identity. Questions relating to ethnic background and identity were administered to 1,029 Greek-Australian pupils from 25 secondary schools in the south-east, inner west and central areas of Sydney (439 males and 590 females). Principal components analysis of fifteen items from the survey was used to explore individual variations in responses. The largest correlation was 0.56 between the importance of Greek origin and feelings about being Greek. Six components with eigen values > 1.0 accounted for 59% of the total variance. The six patterns of response were characterised as : I. Cultural involvement-media contact, II. Ethnic Identity, III. Ethnic Background IV. Bipolar Greek cultural factor, V/VI Specific Factors. There was a general tendency for ethnic background and internalisation-of-identity responses to be separated as components.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , November 1989 , pp. 11 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society 1989

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Footnotes

1

Preparation of this paper has been supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Government through the Office of Youth Affairs.

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