Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Bret Kloos

Abstract

Vietnamese Americans are more likely than other Asian subgroups to identify as Republican. Despite this, Asian American youth, including Vietnamese Americans, still overwhelmingly identify with the Democratic Party. While political orientation could be a source of intergenerational conflict between Asian American generational groups, few studies assess these issues. The present study is an exploratory, hypothesis-generating study investigating the effect of affective polarization in politics on the relationship between intergenerational conflict and well-being for first-and-second-generation Vietnamese Americans. Results showed that affective polarization did act as a moderator for intergenerational conflict on perceived stress for both first-and-second-generation Vietnamese Americans. Specifically, Vietnamese Americans that reported high perceived stress related to high intergenerational conflict was partially due to high affective polarization felt towards members of the outgroup they may not be closely acquainted towards, like general voters, candidates, and elected officials. This study also highlights additional important findings, such as the importance of including a potential political factor in intergenerational conflict measures and models, the importance of understanding the conceptualization and measurement of affective polarization, as well as the potential reactivity of Vietnamese Americans that reported high affective polarization to conflict and stress. Future research should continue building theory, generating potential frameworks, and refining research questions using the theoretical foundations presented by this study.

Rights

© 2026, Van Phan

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