TY - JOUR
T1 - In the uncharted water
T2 - Meaning-making capacity and identity negotiation of Chinese lesbian and bisexual women
AU - Hang, Yang
AU - Zhang, Xiaojun
N1 - Funding Information:
The author is very grateful to the editor and two reviewers for their valuable comments on this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 Hang and Zhang.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Chinese lesbian and bisexual women (LBW) often face difficulties and challenges on campus due to their multiple, socially-oppressed identities. These students have to navigate through uncharted environments to make meaning of their identities. In this qualitative study, by considering four environmental systems of student life, including the student club (microsystem), the university (mesosystem), families (exosystem), and society (macrosystem), we aim to explore what identity negotiation Chinese LBW students have in them and what their meaning-making capacity influence that identity negotiation. We find students experience identity security in the microsystem, identity differentiation-inclusion or inclusion in the mesosystem, and identity unpredictability-predictability or predictability in the exosystem and macrosystem. Moreover, they employ foundational, transitional (formulaic to foundational or symphonic), or symphonic meaning-making capacity to influence their identity negotiation. Suggestions are made for the university to create an inclusive climate accommodating students with different identities.
AB - Chinese lesbian and bisexual women (LBW) often face difficulties and challenges on campus due to their multiple, socially-oppressed identities. These students have to navigate through uncharted environments to make meaning of their identities. In this qualitative study, by considering four environmental systems of student life, including the student club (microsystem), the university (mesosystem), families (exosystem), and society (macrosystem), we aim to explore what identity negotiation Chinese LBW students have in them and what their meaning-making capacity influence that identity negotiation. We find students experience identity security in the microsystem, identity differentiation-inclusion or inclusion in the mesosystem, and identity unpredictability-predictability or predictability in the exosystem and macrosystem. Moreover, they employ foundational, transitional (formulaic to foundational or symphonic), or symphonic meaning-making capacity to influence their identity negotiation. Suggestions are made for the university to create an inclusive climate accommodating students with different identities.
KW - Chinese
KW - ecology of environmental systems
KW - identity negotiation
KW - lesbian and bisexual women
KW - meaning-making capacity
KW - university student
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159910674&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1147119
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1147119
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85159910674
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 14
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
M1 - 1147119
ER -