A culture-centered exploration of Vietnamese American youth narratives regarding eating disorders as an agentic strategy of citizenship and cultural identity

This study employs the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA) to explore how structural forced migration, identity through citizenship, and the need to survive informed food practices and body image among second generation Vietnamese Americans (VA). Using qualitative methods, the research examines how food functions not only as a site of cultural continuity and community-building, but also as a medium through which “good” citizenship as an immigrant and a Vietnamese individual are performed. Participants described expectations of hard work and productivity – rooted in migrant survival and Vietnamese culture – as central to family and community beliefs about food and embodiment. Within this dual framework of formal and cultural citizenship, thinness emerged as both proof of material stability and an embodied display of cultural discipline. Navigating these competing expectations, participants described eating disorders as an agentic, though harmful, strategy for meeting the demands of being a “good” immigrant and a “good” VA. This study expands communication research on citizenship, health, and identity by showing how experiences of food and thinness are shaped by broader systems of migration, belonging, and survival.