Describes a study of the stressful experiences of adolescents in Southeast Asian refugee families resettled in Canada. Data were gathered from a combination of 16 individual interviews and 3 focus groups. Questions included refugee adolescents’ pre-migration history and experiences, early adjustment experiences in Canada, adjustment problems specific to school life, family relationships, and issues relating to ethnic identity and minority status. Among the key findings were that adjustment to a new school was the most common and stressful experience, involving feelings both of being marginalized because of a lack of English proficiency and of confusion due to cultural conflicts; communication problems between parent and child, fueled by linguistic, intergenerational, and cultural factors, were exacerbated by high parental expectations; and many youth expressed ambivalence about their ethnic identities. The findings support the need to ensure the cultural appropriateness of stress measures, especially when assessing stress in immigrant or refugee youth populations.
