Negotiating Identities in the United States: Female International Students’ Identity Gaps and Management Strategies

Abstract

This study was designed to examine female international students’ experience and correlates of personal-enacted and personal-relational identity gaps in the context of their communication within and surrounding school, work, and friendship. Findings of the study revealed that both types of identity gaps coincide with communication dissatisfaction, but that communication satisfaction is only uniquely, negatively predicted by the personal-relational identity gap. Neither type of identity gap significantly predicted educational satisfaction, yet participants’ descriptions of the gaps and their means of managing the gaps yield insight to these quantitative trends. Four central qualitative themes emerged to describe how participants manage their personal-enacted identity gaps: “censoring,” “pretending,” “succumbing,” and “being confident.” For their personal-relational identity gaps, female international students report management strategies that we have organized around the themes of “direct openness,” “humorous openness,” “ignoring,” and “succumbing.”

Keywords

Identity gaps / female international students / negotiating identities

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