Abstract
Vietnamese 1.5 generation adolescents encounter many stress factors when they come to America. The mainstream society continues to homogenize the intra-group adaptation by categorizing all Asian minorities under the model minority, which labels Asians as successful immigrants and overlooks the stress factors of these adolescents. The Vietnamese 1.5 generation adolescents are immigrants who migrate to the United States during their teenage years and acquire life experiences that include two or more nations, cultures, and languages. They are not only facing language barriers, but also stresses from their migration experiences, family circumstances, peer factors, school factors, socio-economic factors, and other stress factors when trying to adapt to the mainstream American society. This causes mal-adaptation, which leads to delinquency and other problems for Vietnamese 1.5 generation adolescents. Their stress factors have gone unnoticed and this has led to mal-adaptation and impedes their opportunity for upward mobility.