Phinney, J. S. (1993). A three-stage model of ethnic identity development in adolescence. In M. E. Bernal & G. P. Knight (Eds.), Ethnic identity: Formation and transmission among Hispanics and other minorities (pp. 61-79). New York, NY: State University of New York Press.In this paper I will be writing my reaction about a Native American twelve year old girl named Jane. Jane lives with her family that includes her mother, two younger sisters, and her maternal grandparents. Her parents are divorced and her father lives in another city. The father sees his daughter only once a year for a weekend when he works the rodeo. She practices many of the customs that the mother and grandparents did when they were raised on the reservation. Jane fluently speaks their native language along with English which she has learned since she was a toddler. She is a good student who likes to read books in English, and hopes to go to college one day. Her immediate family speaks their ancestral language. Some of the Native American and White kids in school call her racial names like “school girl” and “apple. Those who are in her classrooms treat her quite well. Some of the Native American kids object to her not participating enough with her cultural …show more content…
She has reached the fourth and fifth stages of Erikson’s Eight Life-Span Stages where she has started directing her energy into mastering her knowledge and intellectual skills and has begun to find out who she is, what she is, and where she is headed towards in life. If she explores these in a healthy way and arrives at a healthy path to follow, she can then achieve a positive identity; if not, then her identity confusion will reign.(Santrock, J. 2009) I believe she is also struggling with her ethnic identity and needs to find her sense of membership within the Native American culture. She needs to become aware of her attitudes and feelings related to the