Advancing Methods in Research on Asian American Children and Youth

Asian American children and youth constitute at the same time an immigrant group, a set of ethnic groups, and a set of cultural groups. Research on these populations can therefore take on one or more of these perspectives. This article provides guidance for research methods in three areas: (a) conceptualizing and assessing migration-related factors, (b) assessing ethnicity and national origin, and (c) using culturally and contextually relevant measures. Methodological recommendations are made for each area, with attention to small-scale studies with community samples as well as large-scale data sets. In addition, this article recommends researchers attend to within-group variations (i.e., intersections of ethnicity, generational status, gender, class, sexuality), the embeddedness of individual development in context, and specificity of developmental periods.