Contextualized Bilingualism among Adolescents in Indonesia

In three studies, we examined how bilingualism relates to the well-being and sociocultural adjustment of adolescents from different ethnic groups in the multicultural context of Indonesia.

Study 1 includes 448 adolescents (M_age = 15.92 years) from four ethnic groups (Chinese from Java and North Sumatra, Batak, and Javanese). Findings show that ethnic identity, national identity, and parents’ ethnic culture maintenance are important for adolescents’ well-being, whereas speaking the ethnic language at home is not associated with well-being or ethnic identity across participants from these four ethnic groups.

Study 2 includes 214 Javanese, 108 Toraja, and 195 Chinese adolescents (M_age = 14.33 years). Findings show that bilingualism is important for adolescents’ sociocultural adjustment independent of the majority or minority status of their ethnic groups. Furthermore, ethnic language use matters more than language skill; national language skill matters more than ethnic language skill; and both national and ethnic language use are associated with adolescents’ sociocultural adjustment.

Study 3 includes 132 Javanese, 109 Toraja, and 100 Chinese adolescents (M_age = 14.02 years). Findings show that using the shared lingua franca (both at home and outside home settings) is more important for adolescents’ well-being than using the respective ethnic language of their groups.

Together, these studies show the complexity of bilingualism patterns including language skill and use in different settings, particularly when comparing Indonesia, a sedentary multicultural/multilingual context without a lingua franca firmly associated with the majority, with migration-related Western contexts.