The Crucible within: Ethnic Identity, Self-Esteem, and Segmented Assimilation among Children of Immigrants Author(s): Ruben G.

Rumbaut Reviewed work(s): Source: International Migration Review, Vol. 28, No. 4, Special Issue: The New Second Generation (Winter, 1994), pp. 748-794 Published by: The Center for Migration Studies of New York, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2547157 . Accessed: 10/02/2012 10:25
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The

Crucible

Within: and Among Segmented

Ethnic

Identity,

Self-Esteem, Assimilation Immigrants1 Ruben G. Rumbaut State University

Children

of

Michigan

Focusing on the formation of ethnic self-identities during adolescence, the psychosocial of children of immi? this article examines adaptation grants from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The data are drawn from a survey carried out in the San Diego and Miami metropolitan the eighth and areas of over 5,000 children of immigrants attending ninth grades in local schools. The sample is evenly split by gender and nativity (half are U.S. born, half foreign born). The results show major in their patterns of ethnic self-identification, both between differences and within groups from diverse national origins. Instead of a uniform assimilative paths to identity formation. path, we found segmented are sketched social portraits for each ethnic identity type. Detailed of assimilative Multivariate and analyses then explore the determinants ethnic self-identities and of other aspects of psychosocial dissimilative such as self-esteem, affect, and parent-child depressive adaptation for gender, socioeconomic conflict, status, and national controlling and practical implications of these results origin. The theoretical the effects of acculturation, location and discrimination, especially socialization and family context, ethnic density of schools, parental of children of recent immigrants to adaptation upon the psychosocial the United States - are discussed. / wish I knew some other way to render the mental life of the immigrant child of reasoning age . . . What the child thinks and feels is a reflection of the hopes, desires, and purposes of the parents who brought him overseas, no matter how precocious and independent the child may be . . . My parents knew only that they desired us to be like American children . . . In their bewilderment and uncertainty they needs must trust us children to learn from such models as the tenements afforded. More than this, they must step down from the throne of parental authority, and take the law from their children's mouths; for they had no other means of finding out what was good American form. The result . . . makes for friction, and sometimes ends in breaking up a family . . . This sad process of disintegration of home life may be observed in almost any immigrant family of our class and with our Research supported by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Spencer Founda? tion, and the National Science Foundation. 748 IMR Vol. xxviii, No. 4

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traditions and aspirations. It is part of the process of Americanization . . . It is the cross that the first and second generations must bear. . . These are the pains of adjustment, as racking as the pains of birth. And as the mother forgets her agonies in the bliss of clasping her babe to her breast, so the bent and heart-sore immigrant forgets exile and homesickness and ridicule and loss and estrangement, when he beholds his sons and daughters moving as Americans among Americans. (Antin, 1912:198, 271-272)

written before she was 30, Ironically, Mary Antin's popular autobiography, in The Atlantic Monthly in the same year the Immigration was serialized its 42-volume Commission (Dillingham) presented report to the U.S. Con? gress, including five volumes on children of immigrants, fueling fears about the danger to the nation posed by a putatively inferior stock of inassimilable "new" immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. A Russian Jew who at a immigrated young age to Boston with her family in 1894 and went to in Antin was the precocious schools and independent Chelsea, public of a confined the "Pale of in the empire trader to Settlement" daughter petty of the czars, and her book is at once perceptive about the "the mental life of the immigrant child" and pregnant with the unabashed and patriotism of a former stateless person who finds in America, newfound freedom "a nest to homeless birds" (1912:231). despite many hardships, of immigrant children, now Nearly a century later a huge new generation from Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, is growing up in American cities in contexts that seem both familiar and sharply different from those are raised about the reported long ago by Antin. Once again, questions - because of their race, of newcomers the assimilability language, culture, or to one-size-fits-all Procrustean, supposed unwillingness speak English. panethnic labels - such as Asian, Hispanic, Black - are imposed willy-nilly by the society at large to lump ethnic groups together who may hail variously from Vietnam or Korea, India or China, Guatemala or Cuba, Haiti or Jamaica, and who differ widely in national and class origins, phenotypes, languages, cultures, genera? in the United States. tions, migration histories, and modes of incorporation in the Their children, adolescents and especially process of constructing a to social are what "out there" is identity, challenged crystallizing incorporate into what is "in here," often in dissonant social contexts. In California, on the opposite coast from Mary Antin's, a ninth-grade Filipino immigrant girl, eager to fit in her new milieu, reports that "our parents don't come [to school functions] because they don't know any English. I don't even tell them when they are supposed to come. They dress so different and I don't want our parents to come because the others will laugh at them and tease us. We are ashamed" (Olsen, 1988:82). When Lao teens in a San Diego junior high school are teased by white classmates and told to "go back to China," the Lao kids fire back:"Go

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back to Europe!" And a 16-year-old Cambodian girl, a survivor of Cambo? dia's "killing fields" of the late 1970s living in an inner-city neighborhood in San Diego with her widowed mother and unlikely to finish high school, is puzzled by a question about American identity: "How could I be Ameri? can? I black skin, black eyes, black hair . . . My English not good enough and my skin color black" (quoted from case histories in Rumbaut and Ima, 1988; cf. Hatcher and Troyna, 1993).

BACKGROUND In some respects, especially in the racial-ethnic diversification and stratification the current transformation of the American population, may be unprece? dented in the American experience. Class, not color, shaped the fates of the "white ethnics" - Italians, Poles, Greeks, Russian Jews, and many others -whose arrival by the millions during the previous peak period of immigration of the I in War the era culminated restrictionist national-origins quota laws pre-World of the 1920s. The groups that had then occasioned such vitriolic alarms were and absorption into the European whites whose assimilation, amalgamation, of American life over the succeeding mainstream decades, notably in the aftermath of World War II, was aptly captured in the subtitle of Richard Alba's 1985 study of Italian Americans: Into the Twilight of Ethnicity. For those white Americans, at least, one outcome of widespread social mobility and intermar? riage in a span of three or more generations is that ethnic identity has become an optional, familial, leisure-time form of symbolic ethnicity (Alba, 1990; Gans, models of immigrant acculturation and 1979; Waters, 1990). Our conventional self-identification of processes largely derive from the historical experience those (and earlier) European immigrants and their descendants. to the United States is Today's new and rapidly accelerating immigration in of its and national color, class, extraordinary diversity origins. The 1990 U.S. census counted 19.8 million immigrants, an all-time high. In terms of color, most new immigrants self-reported as nonwhite in the 1990 census (cf. Frank? of white immigrants declined from 88 percent of lin, 1993). The proportion those arriving before 1960, to 64 percent in the 1960s, 41 percent in the 1970s, and 38 percent in the 1980s.2 This changing racial-ethnic makeup will change Black immigrants increased from 2% of pre-1960 arrivals to over 8% in the 1980s; Asians from 5% pre-1960 to 31% in the 1980s; and other-race groups from 5% pre-1960 to 23% in the 1980s. Immigrants from the Americas are the most racially mixed, with less than 45% self-reporting as white (mostly from Argentina and Cuba, then Colombia and Nicaragua), 13% as black (most from Haiti, Jamaica and the English-speaking Caribbean, then the Dominican Republic), and 41% as other (predominantly mixed populations of mestizos from Mexico and certain countries in Central and South America; mulattoes from the Spanish-speaking Carib? bean). Significantly, half of all black immigrants in the U.S. are concentrated in the New York metropolitan area and another 16% in Miami; half of the mestizo and Asian populations are concentrated in California, above all along the megalopolitan corridor stretching from San Diego to Los Angeles (Rumbaut, 1994).

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rates of ethnic inter? complex ways due to rapidly increasing In terms of class, today's immigrants include by far the most marriage.3 educated groups (Asian Indians, Taiwanese) and the least educated groups in American society, as well as the groups with the Salvadorans) (Mexicans, lowest poverty rates in the U.S. (Filipinos) and with the highest (Laotians - a reflection of polar-opposite and Cambodians) types of migrations in very different historical embedded and structural contexts. They also differ greatly in their English language skills, age/sex structures, patterns In terms of national origins, of fertility, and forms of family organization. and for the first time in U.S. history, by 1990 Latin American and Caribbean in the peoples had replaced Europeans as the largest immigrant population in the total and born also in Asia the total born far, by country surpassed arrived during the Europe. Over half of these non-European immigrants 1980s alone. Mexicans alone accounted for 22 percent (4.3 million) of the total foreign-born and 26 percent of all immigrants population, arriving since 1970. Filipinos ranked second, with close to one million immigrants and 5 percent of the total. Mexicans and Filipinos comprise, as a result, the and in Asian the U.S. largest Hispanic immigrant groups today. In fact, just over a dozen countries have accounted for over two-thirds of all immigrants since 1970: Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Domini? Nicaragua, can Republic, Jamaica, and Haiti in the Caribbean Basin; and the Philip? South Korea, China, Taiwan and India in Asia. Given pines, Vietnam, will grow at a still faster rate and current trends, the immigrant population will be further diversified its composition during the 1990s (Rumbaut, in still more 1994). made up barely 8 percent of the total 1990 Moreover, while immigrants - a much lower U.S. population than was the case earlier in this proportion - their effects are more than may seem at first glance century pronounced in particular states and localities. because of their patterns of concentration Of the 19.8 million foreign-born persons counted in the 1990 census, fully 5 million - 25 percent of the total - resided in the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas alone. Orange and San Diego Counties, just south of Los Angeles, added 1 million immigrants, while Dade County in South 3Hirschman (1994) has recently reported that, according to 1990 census data on married persons, the proportions of Hispanics married to non-Hispanic persons were 25% for those self-identifying as Cuban, 28% for Mexican, 35% for Puerto Rican, and 44% for other Hispanics; those figures to not include the significant number of Hispanics married to a member of a different Hispanic group (such as a Cuban-Mexican intermarriage). The propor? tion of Asians married to non-Asians was similar.25% to 50% for different nationalities and generational groups. The numbers of black-white intermarriages have been edging upward as well, from 1.9% in 1970 to 3.4% in 1980 and 6.2% in 1990. Current intermarriage rates seem bound to rise even further in the future, creating a growing pool of persons with mixed ethnic ancestry and raising significant questions about the meaning and construction of ethnic identities among their children, and of classifications based on ascriptive and increasingly tenuous categories such as Hispanic and Asian.

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the two cities with the Florida contained 875,000 immigrants, including of foreign-born in the U.S.: Hialeah (70%) residents greatest proportion in and Miami (60%). It is precisely in these areas of dense concentration which heated public debate about the costs and benefits of immigration has most dramatically in California in 1994 by the as illustrated intensified, 187 initiative of that would (the deny public education, Proposition passage health care, and other social services to illegal immigrants and their And as in the past, the perception of immigrants as a threat to children). involves not only economic domestic and fiscal issues but psywell-being chocultural and symbolic concerns, especially those touching on language, loyalty, and national identity. Research about these new immigrants and refugees has focused largely on the situation of first-generation adults. However, much less is known about their children, even though they are already a very visible presence in the schools and in the streets of many American communities, and even of the Ameri? though they will form an increasingly important component and society. Few in-depth studies have been conducted can population so of far on the adaptation children and of their immigrant process prospects for the future; and what is known about their actual adaptation patterns to Even less is known about the subjective aspects of the date is fragmentary. as processed within their phenomenal children's field - what experience, we refer to here as the "crucible within" their modes of ethnic including or national self-identification, of discrimination, perceptions aspirations for their adult futures, cultural preferences, forms of intergenerational cohe? sion or conflict within their families, self-esteem and psychological well-be? indices of their ing, and how these may be related to more objective such as their school and work performance and language shifts experience, from the mother tongue to English, in given social contexts. This article is an effort to contribute to our empirical knowledge in those areas of immigrant psychosocial adaptation, focusing on identity formation The findings reported are from a 1992 survey - the during adolescence. of a first wave of over 5,000 teenage children study planned longitudinal in the San Diego and Miami metropolitan of immigrants areas. Most of the - from Asia, Latin America of new and the immigrants major groups - are in Caribbean San in and Miami; fact, for amply represented Diego San and of those Miami are either the many Diego groups, primary area of in the U.S. (e.g., the Lao in San Diego; Cubans and Nicaraguans settlement in Miami) or they are among the top urban areas in the country in degree of concentration and Cambodians in {e.g., Mexicans, Filipinos, Vietnamese and Jamaicans San Diego; Haitians, in the greater Miami Colombians, assessment of the adaptation of area). This permits a broader comparative diverse groups of children of immigrants on both East and West coasts, in ethnic enclaves, inner-city and suburban communities of the United States.

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For this diverse sample, the paper addresses these principal research are their ethnic (or panethnic) choices? What self-identity ethnocultural, socioeconomic, (demographic, geographic, the familial, academic, generational, linguistic, psychological) distinguish different national origins groups from each other, and the different types of ethnic (or panethnic) identities from each other? And among those which are the main predictors of different types of ethnic characteristics, and parent-child and of self-esteem, con? identities, depressive symptoms, flict? Some theoretical issues guide our analysis of ethnic identity, self and we will briefly consider these before turning esteem, and assimilation, to the presentation of results. questions/What characteristics

THEORETICAL

PERSPECTIVES

It is of more than passing interest to note that the concept of identity use as recently as 1950 - was which, like ethnicity, was not in common Erik H. in his well-known an Childhood Erikson, developed by immigrant, and Society (1950) and many subsequent works. Indeed, Erikson observed that his coinage of the terms identity and identity crisis was inspired by "the of emigration, in a country and Americanization," experience immigration, "which attempts to make a super-identity of all the identities by imported its constituent But he applied 1981:31). immigrants" (quoted in Gleason, the concepts to analyze adolescent rather than immigrant development a Adolescence of adaptation. period spans identity crisis (Erikson, 1968), a to marked adulthood and social emotional, passage by major physical, changes. An essential task of development during this time of heightened when the self-concept is most malleable, is the formation self-consciousness, of a healthy sense of identity (Rosenberg, 1979; see Phinney, 1990, for a review of various developmental models of identity formation). For children of immigrants, that developmental process can be complicated by experi? ences of intense acculturative and intergenerational conflicts as they strive to adapt in social identity contexts that may be racially and culturally dissonant. Recent scholarship has suggested that the incorporation of today's new is likely to be segmented second generation and to take different pathways to adulthood, on a variety of conditions and contexts, vulner? depending abilities and resources (Gans, 1992; Portes and Zhou, 1993; cf. Abramson, 1981). As Portes and Zhou argue, "the question is to what sector of American Thus, one path society a particular immigrant group assimilates" (1993:82). may follow the relatively straight-line theory (or "bumpy-line theory," as Gans [1992] suggests may be a more apt term) of assimilation into the white middle-class majority; an opposite type of adaptation may lead to downward and into the inner city underclass; assimilation mobility yet another may

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ethnic awareness within solidary upward mobility and heightened communities. We would expect that such divergent modes of immigrant will be accompanied by changes in the character and salience incorporation - from linear to reactive of ethnic solidarity of ethnicity and processes formation and and hence Rumbaut, 1990) (Portes identity by divergent modes of ethnic self-identification. Thus, ethnicity may for some groups as it did for the and recede into the social twilight, become optional or it may become for others a resilient of the white Europeans, descendants master status. Still other variants may range from resource or an engulfing identities to panethnogenethe formation of bilingual-bicultural-binational of such officially constructed sis and the eventual acceptance supranational as Hispanic and Asian (cf Espiritu, 1992). categories combine have suggested of social identity and self-esteem Theories various social the formation of ethnic self-images mechanisms underlying psychological 1993; {cf Bernal and Knight, 1993; Phinney, 1991; Porter and Washington, in themselves 1979; Tajfel, 1981). Youths see and compare Rosenberg, relation to those around them, based on their social similarity or dissimi? larity with the reference groups that most directly affect their experiences to with visible and socially categorized such markers as gender, regard e.g., race, accent, language, class, religion, and nationality. Ethnic self-awareness is heightened or blurred, respectively, on the degree of disso? depending of the social contexts which are basic to identity nance or consonance For youths in a consonant formation. context, ethnicity is not salient; but dissonance the salience of ethnicity contextual and of ethnic heightens when it is all the more boundaries, by disparagement group accompanied In theory, self-esteem and discrimination. should be lower in dissonant social contexts - that is, where the level of social dissimilarity is higher along to negative stereotypes with exposure and reflected appraisals about one's - but mechanisms of perceptual defense are deployed to group of origin self-esteem a basic human drive; cf Rosenberg, is seen as (which protect 1979). The youth may cope with the psychological pressure produced by such dissonance by seeking to reduce conflict and to assimilate (literally, to become similar) within the relevant social context. An alternative reaction direction to the rise and reaffirmation of ethnic may lead in an opposite and self-consciousness Korean solidarity e.g., as has occurred among in American the aftermath of the 1992 riots (Min, youths in Los Angeles 1995; ?/, Portes, 1984). Historical and contemporary field studies have portrayed the complexity in the second generation. of multiple Such paths to identity resolution have been observed for the same ethnic group, in adaptations segmented the same school, and even in the same the same ethnic neighborhood, in For a classic example, family. psychological study of second-generation Italian immigrants in New Haven in the late 1930s, Child (1943) described

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within the sphere of the three main reactions to the dilemma of remaining of or of it out breaking family origin altogether: the "rebel" (who immigrant the into the American assimilated milieu), "in-group" type (who retained an Italian ethnicity), and the "apathetic" or marginal reaction, each shaped and centrifugal social forces. Another classic ethnog? by a set of centripetal Italian "slum district" raphy, done at about the same time in Boston's (Whyte, 1955), detailed the divergent trajectories of the "college boys," who out of the ethnic colony and into the larger society, and the assimilated "corner boys," who were loyal above all to their peers and stayed behind (cf. of divergent ethnic fates Macleod, 1987, for a parallel recent ethnography in an inner-city neighborhood). Fieldwork in the 1980s with Mexican-de? five different ethnic scent students in a California high school distinguished - from Mexican immigrants, recently arrived and longer-term identity types U.S.-born Mexican Ameri? who did especially well in school, to assimilated and Cholos - all of whom differed cans and the more troubled Chicanos in their achievement and aspirations (Matute-Bianchi, 1986). profoundly Other field studies of Mexican-origin youth have observed that even in the same family each child may resolve identity issues and conflicts differently from Cholo to anglicized, from bilingual a spectrum to and occupy to English-only-speaking, from assimilated youths to Spanglish-speaking and Suarez-Orozco, 1995; Vigil, 1988). (Suarez-Orozco gang members in this study, some specific hypotheses can be derived For our purposes and assimi? from the available theoretical literature on ethnic identification in Ameri? statement on assimilation lation. In perhaps the most influential assimilation" "identificational can life, Milton Gordon (1964) considered as an unhyphenated as the end point of a American i.e., a self-image proceeds through structural assimi? process that begins with acculturation, and is accompanied lation and intermarriage, by an absence of prejudice in the core society. For Gordon, once structural assimi? and discrimination to acculturation, lation has occurred, either in tandem with or subsequent of like a row of tenpins assimilation have all taken "the remaining types place For the bowled over in rapid succession by a well placed strike" (1964:81). in fact, the acculturation children of white European immigrants, process in that "the greater risk consisted was so "overwhelmingly triumphant" that could alienation from family ties and in role reversals of the generations If predictions from subvert normal parent-child (1964:107). relationships" also Warner and assimilation so-called "straight-line Srole, 1945; theory" (see but cf. Abramson, 1981; Glazer, 1993; Gleason, 1980) apply to the current from Asia and the Caribbean waves of immigrants Basin, then we would - as indicated of their level acculturation that the by fluency greater expect for, and use of English in social life, by U.S. nativity and in, preference - the A assimilation. of identificational greater the probability citizenship would tend to be that shifts of assimilation variant theory predicts identity

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lower to higher status groups; where social mobility is blocked by lower status group members and discrimination, may instead prejudice reaffirm their ethnic identity or adopt a panethnic label, even despite a high (Yinger, 1981). As a corollary, all other things being degree of acculturation that the children of higher status immigrant we hypothesize parents equal, will be less a form sizeable of contemporary (who proportion immigrants) into the dominant likely to assimilate group ethnicity, and more likely to of with the their ethnicity identify parents. from A segmented assimilation identificational takes however, perspective, if not unidirectional of a relatively unilinear issue with the assumption into the dominant as Instead, group ethnicity. process of identification described to above, multiple ethnic identities may emerge, corresponding and social distinct modes of immigrant contexts of adaptation reception. into white middle class society, and One of those paths leads to assimilation of straight-line we would expect the above predictions theory to apply. However, as Portes and Zhou (1993) have argued, some of the contextual factors that are most likely to shape the prospects of the new second generation location in or have to do with the presence or absence of racial discrimination, differential association from areas hence with the reactive (and away inner-city adversarial subcultures of underclass youths), and the presence or absence of Contexts that combine the positive a strong receiving coethnic community. features of those factors (e.g., as in Cuban Miami, a well-established economic enclave that provides a wide range of resources and role models to their children, including private bilingual schools, and insulates them both from native minorities and general prejudice) to lead to a may be hypothesized resilient sense of ethnic identity. By contrast, contexts that combine the negative features of those factors (e.g., as in Miami's Little Haiti, a large but ethnic community, official hostility and widespread racial dis? disadvantaged in inner city schools where native peer crimination, their children concentrated groups undercut the immigrant ethos of their parents) may be expected to lead to assimilation into the oppositional identities of native racial minorities (Portes and Zhou, 1993; cf. Fordham and Ogbu, 1987). In this study we are concerned with the influence of relevant social and contexts on self-concept, The psychological self-regard, well-being. on contexts and processes above has focused attention discussion outside the family that may influence modes of ethnic self-definition. However, how is critically affected by the these youths think and feel about themselves and by the strength of the attachment parents' modes of ethnic socialization that the child feels to the parents and to the parents' national origins. Ethnic is, among other things, a measure of the degree of the chil? self-identity with their parents. Indeed, we expect that dren's sense of identification and the quality of parent-child characteristics, structure, family parental have effects on this and all other aspects of should relationships significant

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we hypothesize that the psychosocial adaptation process. Psychologically, dissonance factors that may reduce contextual e.g., acculturation (espe? -would have posi? U.S. nativity, citizenship cially in English competency), and psychological Those that tive effects on self-esteem increase well-being. contextual dissonance and expose the youth to negative reflected appraisals from significant others, especially parents and peers - such as discrimina? tion and conflictual relations with parents - would have negative effects. We families will be most that the most recently arrived immigrant expect and to to dissonant social contexts dissonant about exposed messages hence we would expect the psychosocial of those themselves; adaptation teens to be more difficult and to affect their sense of self-worth. These will be tested through multivariate analyses of ethnic general hypotheses and depressive for self-identifications, self-esteem, symptoms, controlling gender, age, national origin, and a variety of individual and family charac? teristics. We turn first, however, to a brief discussion of the sample and measures used in this research.

DATA

AND

METHODS

The data presented below are derived from the first phase of a study of children of immigrants enrolled in schools located in two research sites in Southern California and South Florida. The students sampled in the initial survey were in the eighth and ninth grades, a level at which dropout rates are still relatively low, to avoid the potential bias of differential dropout rates between ethnic groups at the senior high school level. The survey was conducted during Spring 1992 in collaboration with the unified school districts of San Diego, California, in South and of Dade (Miami) and Broward (Fort Lauderdale) Counties Florida. As mentioned above, the groups sampled include most of the major immigrant and refugee populations in the United States today and reflect their diverse origins and patterns of concentration in those sites. In San Diego, the includes children of two the sample largest immigrant groups in the United States today - Mexicans and Filipinos - as well as children of the largest refugee to be resettled in the United States since 1975, the Vietnamese, populations In Miami, where Laotians, and Cambodians (cf. Rumbaut, 1990, 1991,1995). form a majority of the population of the metropolitan area and immigrants have fundamentally transformed it over the past three decades, the sample of a huge and highly diversified is representative Cuban exile community, as well as of the second largest concentration of immigrants from the who have entered under very different circumstances Afro-Caribbean, from and other West Indian Haiti, especially Jamaica English-speaking island nations - and of sizable, recently-arrived groups from Nicaragua, in Latin America (see Portes and Stepick, 1993; and elsewhere Colombia, Portes and Zhou, 1993). Florida's Broward County provides a contrasting

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setting as a location away from the main centers of immigrant concentration but is also the source of more than half of the in Miami and Hialeah, students in the sample. Jamaican

Sample

Selection

To be eligible for inclusion in the study, a student had to be either foreign born or U.S. born with at least one foreign-born parent. Since the school on the nativity or immigration districts do not collect information status of parents, a brief initial survey of all eighth and ninth graders was carried out to determine eligibility. All eligible students then took parental consent of the parents in forms home; these were returned signed by three-fourths San Diego and two-thirds of the parents in South Florida. Those students, the survey questionnaire in turn, were administered at school during the the Spring 1992 semester. The final sample of students who completed Cambo? survey totaled 5,264: over 2,400 Mexican, Filipino, Vietnamese, dian, Laotian, and other Asian and Latin American students in San Diego Colom? city schools; and over 2,800 Cuban, Haitian, Jamaican, Nicaraguan, and West Indian students in Dade and bian, and other Latin American Broward Counties. About 200 of the students in the Miami sample (primar? in two bilingual Cubans) were enrolled ily upper middle-class private schools. All others attended public schools which ranged from predomi? white schools in the nantly nonwhite central city schools to predominantly and schools. The sample middle, junior high, suburbs, including magnet dozens of different of nationalities represents origin, roughly correspond? of particular immigrant ing to the varying concentrations groups in the San areas, as noted earlier. However, for the Diego and Miami metropolitan of this article, we exclude from the analysis a small mixed group purposes in the Miami area with a parent born in any one of of 137 respondents several dozen countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Australia, and Canada. Thus, we report data here for the sample of 5,127 children of from Latin and the America, Asia, Caribbean, immigrants focusing analyti? cally on the largest ten national-origin groups from these regions.4 At the time of the survey, most of the respondents were 14 or 15 years old (the mean age was 14.2, with an age range from 12 to 17), and were born in 1977 or 1978. The total sample is evenly split by gender, grade, and 4ln the data presented (Tables 2 through 7), smaller national-origins groups from these regions are aggregated for ease of analysis and presentation. Other Latin Americans includes most Central and South American countries, but primarily Dominicans, Hondurans, Argentinians, Peruvians, Ecuadorans, Chileans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans. Other Asians includes mainly Chinese (from the mainland, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong), Japanese, Koreans, and Indians. Other West Indians come mainly from Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, and Belize.

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are U.S.-born children of immigrant parents (the second generation:half and half are foreign-born to the youths who immigrated generation), United States before age twelve (what Thomas and Znaniecki referred to and we have called the [1958:1776], generation long ago as the half-second or 1.5 generation and one-and-a-half Ima, 1988]). Among the [Rumbaut the is also evenly split by age at arrival:about youth, sample foreign-born half had lived in the U.S. for ten years or more (that is, they were preschool age at arrival), while the other half had lived in the United States nine years school age in their native or less (that is, they had reached elementary country but arrived in the United States before reaching puberty/adoles? children is not cence). Thus, time in the United States for these immigrant a of of American also measure to an indicator but life, length exposure solely of different at the time of (on the developmental stages immigration of these different at and arrival importance ages stages among immigrant children, see Cropley, 1983). The sample reflects a wide range of socioeco? nomic and cultural backgrounds, migration histories and contexts of recep? and neighborhoods tion, as well as types of family structures, schools, inner city and suburban areas, and, notably for Cubans in the (including Miami area, dense immigrant enclaves).

Measures The survey gathered data on respondents' the characteristics, demographic of both the respondents and their parents, family nativity and citizenship size and structure, socioeconomic status (parents' education and occupa? the respondents' of their parents' tion, home ownership), perceptions motives and ethnic self-identities, and respondents' migration peer rela? and use hours on homework tionships, spent daily language proficiency, and watching television, educational and occupational aspirations, percep? tions and experiences of discrimination, and a range of attitudinal and other psychosocial and depres? variables, including measures of self-esteem sion. In addition, school data on grade point averages, Stanford reading test scores, LEP/FEP (English Language Proficiency) and math achievement classification, status, and related variables were gifted and handicapped obtained from the respective school systems for all students in the sample. The items and response formats composing the major scales used in the (Cronbach's analysis, along with their scoring and reliability coefficients instruments alphas), are detailed in Table 1. Some are standardized widely used in the research literature. Self-esteem was measured using the ten-item 1965,1979). Rosenberg scale (Rosenberg, Depressive symptoms were meas? subscale from the Center for Epidemiological ured with a four-item Stud? have been to be these items found scale; (CES-D) ies-Depression predictive of major depression among adolescents (Vega et al., 1993; cf. Vega and

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between self-esteem and depres? Rumbaut, 1991). The Pearson correlation sion was -.39 (p < .0001) for the sample as a whole. An English language index was developed the respon? using four items measuring proficiency to and write dent's self-reported read, ability speak, understand, English; scoring each item from 1 to 4 (1, not at all; 2, not well; 3, well; and 4, very well), with an overall index score calculated as the mean of the four items. index was strongly correlated (.42, p < .0001) with This English proficiency test score, providing the objective Stanford reading achievement evidence index was similarly of its validity. A foreign con? language proficiency structed, assessing the respondent's read, and ability to speak, understand, write the parental native language also scoring each of the four items from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very well) with the overall index score as the mean of the are measured as the mean of two items four items. Educational aspirations level of the education the respondent for would like to highest asking the score ranges from achieve and the highest level realistically expected; 1 (less than high school) to 5 (a graduate degree), with 4 equal to finishing sets of attitudinal variables college. Finally, as a data reduction technique, were also factor-analyzed using varimax rotation, and main factors with greater than .50 were greater than one and factor loadings eigenvalues We report findings from three scales thus created, each contain? identified. and par? familism, American preferences, ing three items and measuring conflict (see Table 1 for specific items composing ent-child these scales, response formats, and scoring). and experiences of discrimination were measured by several Perceptions to a direct question items. Here we report results from responses about against (and if yes, why and by whom), actually having been discriminated and to a key item about expected discrimination: No matter how much I get, people will still discriminate education against me (scored from 1, not true at all to 4, very true). Respondents' of their family's perceptions to five years ago were measured economic situation compared on a scale from 1, much better, to 5, much worse. Hours per weekday spent on and hours per weekday watching television homework are here scored.O, less than 1 hour, 1, 1 to 2 hours, and so on through 5, 5 or more hours. feelings of being embarrassed by one's parents, Finally, an item measuring children a not uncommon at (as illustrated among immigrant experience the outset of the article( read as follows: Linda and Luis are both students whose parents are foreign-bom. Linda says, I am sometimes embarrassed because my parents don't know American ways. Luis says: "I am never embarrassed by my parents; I like the way they do things." Which comes closest to how you feel? [Linda, Luis, or neither]. In this analysis, were scored 0. answers checking Linda were scored 1 and the others

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TABLE 1 Composition and Reliability of Scales Cronbach's Items and Measures Scale and Scoring Alpha Index How well do .92 you (speak, understand, read, write) English Proficiency (4 items: scored 1 to 4) English? l=Notat all; 2=Notwell; 3= Well; 4=Very well .93 How well do you (speak, understand, read, write) Foreign Language Index (4 items: scored 1 to 4) [foreign language]? 1=Not at all; 2=Not well; 3= Well; 4=Very well .80 What is the highest level of education you would like to EducationalAspirationsScale achieve? (2 items; scored 1 to 5) And realisticallyspeaking, what is the highest level of education that you think you will get? 1=Less than high school; 2=High school; 3=Some college; 4=Finish college; 5=Finish a graduate degree I feel I am a person of worth, at least on an equal basis .81 Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale with others. (10 items: scored 1 to 4) I feel I have a number of good qualities. I am able to do things as well as most other people. I take a positive attitude towardmyself. On the whole, I am satisfiedwith myself. All in all, I am inclined to think I am a failure[reverse score]. I feel I do not have much to be proud of [reverse score]. I wish I could have more respect for myself [reverse score]. I certainly feel useless at times [reverse score]. At times I think I am no good at all [reverse score]. 1= Disagree a lot; 2=Disagree; 3= Agree; a lot 4=Agree .74 CES-D Depression Subscale [Howoftenduringtliepast week:] I did not feel like eating; my appetite was poor. (4 items: scored 1 to 4) I could not "get going.' I felt depressed. I felt sad. 1= Rarely;2 =Some of the time (1 or 2 days); 3=Occasionally (3 or 4 days);4=Most of the time (5 to 7 days) .57 One should find a job near his/her parents even if it FamilismScale means losing a betterjob somewhere else. (3 items: scored 1 to 4) When someone has a serious problem, only relativescan help. In helping a person get ajob, it is alwaysbetter to choose a relative rather than a friend. 1= Disagree a lot; 2=Disagree; 3= Agree; 4=Agreealot .57 American Preference Scale Believe there is no better country to live in than the United States. (3 items: scored 1 to 4) How often you prefer American way of doing things. How often your parents prefer American way of doing things. l=Never; 2=Sometimes; 3=Mostof time; 4=All of the time In troublewith parents because of different way of doing .56 Parent-ChildConflict Scale (3 items: scored 1 to 4) things. My parents are usually not veiy interested in what I have to say. My parents do not like me very much. 1=Not true at all; 2 =Not very true; 3=Partly tine; _4=Very true_

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FINDINGS Results are summarized below in six tables of data. Table 2 presents the chosen by the respondents, various types of ethnic self-identification broken down by the nativity of the children (U.S. born vs. foreign born) and the national origins of their parents. Table 3 then provides a detailed portrait of the major national origins groups, including all of the measures discussed and type and location of characteristics above plus other basic individual schools. Table 4 breaks down those same variables by the different types of ethnic identities. Table 5 presents logistic regressions self-reported predict? ing the odds of selecting four main types of ethnic self-identity. Finally, Table 6 presents the results of multiple linear regressions self-esteem predicting 7 while Table a scores and depressive similar provides symptoms, analysis of parent-child conflict outcomes. Only selected findings from these tables for discussion. are highlighted concerns the determination of Perhaps the first result to be highlighted of the respondents ethnic groups by national origins, and the assignment to their respective ethnic groups. Who is Cuban, Filipino, Haitian, Laotian, or Mexican turns out to be a complicated methodological problem rather the determination than a simple matter of fact. In principle, of ethnicity based in the first instance on should be straightforward and unambiguous, the birthplace of foreign-born or, if U.S. born, on the birth? respondents, of their the However, place reflecting fluidity of ethnicity and the parents. noted (see Note 3, supra), only threeincreasing patterns of intermarriage in the sample had parents who were fourths (76.9%) of the children conationals as is (and these rates of homogamy vary widely by nationality, shown in Table 3). In 12.6 percent of the cases, one parent was U.S. born; sometimes these involved coethnic (e.g., a Mexican immigrant marriages married to a U.S.-born woman of Mexican descent), but often they did not married to a Filipina woman, a Cubanserviceman (e.g., a black American born man married to an Anglo wife, a Haitian married to a Dominican). in some, ethnicity cut Other cases reflected a variety of mixed nationalities; clearly across nationality (e.g., a Chinese man from Hong Kong married to an ethnic Chinese woman from Burma) but not in most. In still others, birthplace was not a proxy for ethnicity (e.g., those involving ethnic minori? ties from the countries of origin, such as the Hmong from Laos and ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, or involving unique historical circumstances, such and Laotian children in the sample were as the fact that many Cambodian born in refugee camps in Thailand or elsewhere in Southeast Asia). In these cases, languages spoken, surnames, and other indicators had to be checked to determine ethnicity. Where none of the above steps resolved the ambi? in cases of mixed guity involved in ethnic group assignment especially - the in and of the mother took prece? marriages stepfamilies nationality dence (unless she was U.S. born), reflecting both the mother's more influ-

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ential role in the children's socialization (a pattern that is documented further below) and the fact that fathers were absent in fully 30 percent of the homes in the sample. In the much smaller number of mixed cases where the mother was absent but the father was not, the nationality of the father he U.S. in was given precedence was born) (unless respondents assigning clear, what is a methodological by national origin. As should become problem to the researcher is a central psychosocial problem to an adolescent in arriving at a meaningful ethnic self-definition.

Ethnic

Identities

An open-ended ethnic question was asked to ascertain the respondent's and the answers were subsequently coded and quantified. The self-identity, results (and the wording of the question) are presented in Table 2, broken down by the respondents' Four main nativity and their parents' nationality. of ethnic self-identities became which be characterized types apparent, may or national-origin as follows: (1) an ancestral, immigrant, identity (e.g., (2) an additive, syncretic, or hyphenated Jamaican, Hmong); Nicaraguan, Vietnamese-American); identity (e.g., Cuban-American, Filipino-American, or American national identity, without the hyphen; and (3) an assimilative racial or panethnic Latino, (4) a dissimilative identity (e.g., Hispanic, Chicano, Black, Asian). The first two of these explicitly identify with the and original homeland, if at different of experience immigrant degrees closeness, whereas the last two are exclusively identities "made in the U.S.A." The first three also focus chiefly on national identifications of (whether of both); the fourth reflects a denation? origin or of destiny, or a bridging alized identification with racial-ethnic minority groups in the country of in relation to the white Anglo and self-conscious differences destination, the as whole For a (N = 5,127), without regard majority population. sample to the nativity of the respondents, over a just quarter (27%) identified by national or ethnic origin; a plurality (40%) chose a hyphenated-American as "American;" and over identification; just over a tenth (11%) identified two-tenths self-identifications (21%) selected racial or panethnic (or, in less than 4% of the cases, indicated a mixed or other identity not classifiable among the four main types). Seen another way, two-thirds of the respon? dents ethnically with their or their parents' immigrant self-identified ori? the either one-third assimilative or dissimilative gins; remaining reported identities that are not connected to those origins, but to their American present. Whether the respondent was born in the whether the respondent is a member of the - makes a half-second or 1.5 generation great identity selected. Among the foreign born, United States or not - that is, second generation, or of the difference in the type of ethnic as Table 2 shows, 43 percent

2 TABLE andSout in SouthernCaldpornia Self-Reported Ethnic Identity of Childrenof Immigrants Nativity of the ChildrenandNational Originof ThetrParents_ _by Caribbean Latin America and West NicaLatin PhilipMexico Cuba ragua Colombia America Haiti Jamaica Indies Ethnic pines Vietn Identity byNativity 93 35 368 313 301 354 318 105 101 Total 236 (FB) Foreign-Born 58 71 450 77 62 456 873 Total U.S.-Born 26 122 242 (US) > "American" oHyphenated-American' oNational Origin' FB US 0 3.9 3.7 28.5 46.3 55.8 5.0 50.0 13.2 23.1 35.8 0 10.2 9.5 45.9 26.9 42.5 19.2 1.9 32.0 24.8 34.4 39.0 9.8 34.3 23.0 29.5 19.7 9.3 35.5 17.8 21.1 33.9 10.3 39.0 33.1 36.0 26.4 3.0 26.0 31.7 44.2 42.6 13.0 22.8 16.9 7.5 22.6 22.6 40.3 63.4 22.6 6.5 14.0 8.6 28.2 31.4 29.6 48.6 14.1 11.4 28.2 0.5 51.6 65.6 39.4 21.8 8.4 6.9

2. 10

FB 16.3 US 38.8 FB 36.2 US 8.1

41. 67.

48. 19

FB 47.5 orMixed % Racial/Panethnic Identity4 US 49.1 o"Hispanic"'1 FB 41.2 US 20.6 FB 3.7 US 24.6 FB US bMixed Other Identity, FB US 0 0.4 2.7 3.5

7. 3.

0 0.1 2.5 1.5 3.5 7.7 4.8 2.5

8.9 14.3 13.9 2.6

3.2 9.7 3.2 4.8

5.7 15.5 5.7 12.7

0.5 0.7 7.9 6.2

7. 3.

106 Total Sample for Seetext doyoucall "How doyouidentify, that totheopen-ended is,what analysis. yourself?" survey question: Responses etc. 2For "Mexican-American," "Cuban-American," "Hmong-American," "Filipino-American," example, asHmong, identified notasLaotian; from who anethnic Laos TheHmong are "Vor "Mexican," "Cuban," they group "Filipino." minority example, inSouthea and elsewhere from Vietnam to ethnic Chinese from not reflected in the Similar distinctions, table, though apply majority group Laos). are here inclu or as "Asian" 11 identified "Black." 4For "Asian-American;" "Chicano," "Latino," (0.2%) they "Hispanic," Only respondents example, here are include chose "Latino". Thelatter indicated a "Hispanic" while 28(18ofMexican :>A of631respondents ethnic total origin) identity, only those from inSan differ "Chicano" were allMexicn-origin (The123 "Latino," "His choosing They significantly Diego. choosing youth respondents

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identify by their own national origin, but that proportion drops sharply to 11 percent among the U.S. born. By contrast, hyphenated-American iden? 49 tities increase from 32 percent among the foreign born to a prevailing of second the U.S.-born Assimilative "American" selfpercent generation. identifications jump sharply from a miniscule 3 percent among the foreign of born to over 20 percent among the U.S. born - double the proportion These the U.S. born who still identify in terms of their parents' nationalities. trend in ethnic self-iden? findings are suggestive of a significant assimilative to the next. The most assimilative tification from one generation groups in to be the Latin Americans, with the very notable this regard appear of Mexicans. the U.S. born, less than 4 percent of exception Among identified Mexican-descent as American of lowest (the youth proportion any group), in sharp contrast to 29 percent of the Cubans, 32 percent of the and even higher proportions of the Nicaraguans and other Colombians, Latin Americans. the Vietnamese and Fili? Asian-origin groups, especially ethnic identities, pinos, are the most likely to opt for additive or hyphenated are most likely to sustain a national-origin as are the Cubans. Jamaicans into the second even among them the per? identity generation, although so from 63 centage identifying drops percent among those born in Jamaica to 23 percent among those born in the United States. At the same time, a substantial proportion of the sample - about one fifth of the foreign born and an equal proportion of the U.S. born - opt for racial of self-definition, or panethnic modes but again there are significant variations within as well as between and regional-origin national-origin the 1,655 Asian-origin youth surveyed, only 11 chose the groups. Among or Asian labels Asian at least among these Asian-origin American; panethnic Asian panethnicity is a moot issue (cf, Espiritu, adolescents, 1992). By Latin American contrast, of the 3,033 youth of Spanish-speaking origins, 631 (21%) identified as Hispanic, and another 28 (0.9%) as Latino. The use among Hispanic identity label appears to be tied to Spanish language the less sizable and more recently arrived Latin American immigrant groups and to decline use) from the very rapidly (as does Spanish language 1.5 generation to the nonimmigrant second It immigrant generation. label for all Latin American nationalities remains, however, a significant except the Cubans. Among the Cubans, who form a numerical majority in the Miami area, racial or panethnic forms of self-definition are by far the least common of all those groups. Among the 757 Mexican-origin youth, a substantial number identified as all of them Chicano, (123) very virtually U.S. born and all of them in California; in fact, a quarter of all Mexican-de? scent second-generation students self-defined as Chicano, a historical and of problematic identity unique to that group which adds to the complexity in the U.S. context (see Hurtado, Mexican et al., 1994; ethnic identities and Suarez1986, 1991; Sanchez, Matute-Bianchi, 1993; Suarez-Orozco

766

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Orozco, 1995). Finally, a Black or Black American racial identity is observ? able essentially Haiti, only among the youth from the Afro-Caribbean: Jamaica and the other West Indies. Here, however, the pattern is the reverse self-identification:that of that seen for Hispanic is, the choice of a Black all for of these increases identity significantly groups among the U.S. born, a is chosen small it although by relatively minority and it is particularly rare Of 439 in our the the youths from the Afro-Caribbean among Jamaicans. as Black. Still, among the U.S. born, sample, only 10 percent identified and other West Indian youths already identify as Black more Haitian-origin than they do as Haitian or West Indian. This is a pattern that appears likely over time and that may reflect processes of identificational to expand in with native minority assimilation inner peer groups city areas (cf. Woldemikael, 1989).

Characteristics Groups Table 3 sketches

of Children

of Immigrants

by National

Origin

a broad psychosocial portrait of all of the major nationalorigin groups. These data make clear, first of all, the distinct patterns of concentration of these groups, and their basic demographic geographic All of the groups from the Afro-Caribbean characteristics. without exception differ from the others in their disproportionately number of females high in the sample (cf Foner, 1987). The Nicaraguans and the Indochinese are the most recent arrivals, the majority coming during the 1980s, and few of are yet U.S. born. (The relatively small number of U.S. born the teenagers are children Vietnamese of the elite first wave of 1975 refugees.) The Cubans, on the other hand, have been here the longest, and over 70 percent of them were born in the United States - a higher proportion by far than other. The size of the Cuban any large sample (1,227) accurately reflects in Dade County schools; indeed, the Cubans were the their preponderance a majority of the popula? only ethnic group in the sample who constituted tion in their community.

There are wide differences in socioeconomic status among them. Levels are lowest for the Mexicans, of parental education the Haitians, and the the Laotians and the the Indochinese Indochinese, Cambodians; especially of parents who are not in the labor force, by far have the highest proportions a reflection of the fact that they exhibit the highest rates of poverty and in the United States (Rumbaut, welfare dependency 1994). The Filipinos and the Other Asians (mainly Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Indians) show the highest proportions of college graduates and among mothers fathers, and their families are much more likely to own rather than rent their homes. their families' lower class status, Mexican and Reflecting Indochinese the and Lao Cambodian, respondents (especially Hmong,

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were by far the most likely to be attending youths, then the Vietnamese) inner city schools in San Diego, followed by Haitian students in the Miami and Colombians were the least likely to be area. The Filipinos, Jamaicans in inner while much higher proportion to a schooling city contexts, exposed of the Cubans sampled were enrolled in private schools in Miami than any of the other national-origin groups. 3 also presents information on patterns of English and foreign use and With obvious exception of immigrants the proficiency. language from the English-speaking Caribbean, and a nontrivial number of Filipinos and Other Asians, very few of the respondents spoke English only (7.3% of of the total sample pre? the total sample). However, nearly three-fourths ferred English, including substantial majorities in every group and nearly nine out often Filipinos; the single exception are the Mexicans, who are the most loyal to their mother tongue, although even among them 45 percent More than one-third English. preferred speak English only with their a smaller interestingly, proportion speak English only parents, although, with their close friends (who in most cases are also children of immigrants). The Hmong are perhaps the most dramatic opposite example/virtually no Hmong parent speaks in English with their children and the families are the most linguistically to 1990 census data; but over isolated, according of the Hmong children report speaking English only with their one-third friends. The Laotians and the Cambodians also have the lowest scores in index and in the Stanford both the four-item English language proficiency achievement test scores. Stanford standardized test data in (The reading All of the Latin American groups have Table 3 reflect national percentiles.) index (Spanish) higher scores in the four-item foreign language proficiency than any others, with the Mexicans scoring highest in their self-reported Table Spanish ability. Various indicators of educational attainment and aspirations are pro? vided in Table 3. The other Asians show a level of ability in the Stanford test that is well above national norms, followed by the math achievement the Hmong, Cubans, and Colombians; Vietnamese, Mexicans, Filipinos, are well below national math norms, followed by the Lao and Cambodians and the Haitians. The student rankings in math test scores generally reflect the socioeconomic status of their parents. The association between social attainment class and educational outcomes does not similarly extend, however, to academic grade point averages (GPAs). For example, despite on achievement their poor performance tests, the Hmong had earned the academic GPAs of all the groups except for the high-achieving highest and other Asians. One measure of effort in Table 3 provides a Vietnamese main reason: the Hmong devote by far more hours per day to homework than any other group. In general, Asian-origin students put in the most time and Latin American students the least, with those from the homework

TABLE3 in SouthernCaliforniaandSouth Florida,1992,byN of Childrenof Immigrants Social Characteristics Caribbean Latin and American West Latin NicaPhilip? America Haiti Jamaica Indies Mexico Cuba raguaColombia pines Vietn Characteristics N= (757) (1,227) (344) (227) (478) (178) (155) (106) (818) (371 Social Location 97.8 8.5 0.6 1.8 11.9 96.3 1.2 0.2 % San County Diego 1.0 1.3 3.2 97.5 97.7 88.1 75.7 80.9 41.9 61.3 % Dade County 0.4 0.8 30.2 52.3 18.5 10.1 12.3 0.5 1.2 2.4 % Broward County and Gender Age 49.8 52.3 51.6 52.6 48.6 48.0 44.8 37.6 36.1 33.0 % Males 14.1 14.3 14.2 14.1 14.4 14.2 14.4 14.4 14.2 14.2 Age (years) and Nativity Citizenship 55.0 15.6 7.6 53.7 50.6 43.3 40.0 67.0 60.2 71.1 %U.S.-Bom 78.0 34.5 69.2 77.8 27.0 63.0 66.9 53.9 54.8 81.1 U.S. citizen % 28.7 42.4 9.0 57.9 26.9 30.2 28.8 36.1 20.7 10years inU.S. 28.4 % than Less 76.3 89.5 73.1 76.3 85.8 63.4 75.3 82.0 76.8 49.1 % co-nationals Both parents 19.6 3.2 5.6 11.6 23.6 19.0 11.9 1.5 17.3 10.1 is U.S.-born % One parent Status Socioeconomic 17.9 29.0 15.1 10.1 23.9 7.3 25.4 38.4 24.2 28.0 iscollege % Father graduate 38.1 8.6 11.2 30.3 23.6 19.4 22.0 4.2 20.9 28.5 iscollege %Mother graduate 17.4 45.6 30.2 27.1 30.3 20.5 19.4 17.0 22.7 force 21.1 notinlabor %Father 13.9 59.6 18.1 19.8 44.8 29.7 29.4 26.9 27.2 27.5 force % notinlabor Mother 73.7 34.5 32.5 67.2 33.4 53.3 57.3 64.6 63.9 58.5 % Own home Language % only English speak % prefer English with % English parents speak with friends % English speak Index (1-4) Proficiency English Index (1-4) Foreign Language Education test Stanford Reading (percentile) Math test Stanford (percentile) Grade (GPA) average point Hours onhomework (0-5) daily ratio Hours-of-homework-to-TV Educational (1-5) aspirations 2.4 45.2 19.3 12.8 3.47 3.24 0.7 82.3 36.8 17.4 3.85 3.06 0.6 74.4 11.1 15.4 3.69 3.15 1.3 70.5 19.8 25.6 3.82 3.10 4.2 73.6 33.1 26.8 3.79 3.00 4.5 80.9 44.4 29.2 3.80 2.34 47.1 71.0 74.8 59.4 3.91 2.07 56.6 85.9 88.7 76.4 3.93 1.65 18.0 88.3 84.4 62.8 3.84 2.12

1.6 51.5 9.7 29.4 3.3 2.6

26.6 47.5 38.0 44.7 42.9 30.4 47.8 43.0 31.9 58.5 55.4 58.4 55.3 45.0 55.5 49.8 2.24 2.28 2.32 2.33 2.31 2.28 2.58 2.45 1.46 l.< 1.16 1.21 1.28 1.24 1.21 1.82 1.90 1.06 0.87 0.88 0.81 0.82 0.89 0.87 0.88 3.90 4.42 4.41 4.42 4.36 4.44 4.51 4.41

51.1 37.6 59.1 60.4 2.93 3.0 1.87 2.0 1.02 1.3 4.40 4.1

Parents and Family athome natural % Both parents from home % Father absent size Family-household scale values Famflism (1-4) main school are % Parents help % Embarassed byparents scale Parent-child conflict (1-4) ofMother Ethnic Identity as"American" % Identify % asHyphenated-American % National Identity Origin % Racial/Panethnic/Mixed Schools schools %Ininner-city schools % Inbilingual private ofU.S. Views and Discrimination discriminated % been against discrimination (1-4) Expects U.S. isbest (1-4) country scale .American (1-4) preference Status Psychological scale Self-esteem (1-4) subscale CES-D depression (1-4)_1.68

59.3 58.7 35.3 34.7 4.8 3.4 1.79 2.07 24.0 36.4 8.1 16.5 1.69 1.63 20.2 12.0 58.3 9.5 61.0 0.1 64.9 2.12 2.65 2.33 3.17 24.1 29.6 43.4 2.9 20.0 14.9 38.1 1.67 3.03 2.56 3.40 1.60

62.8 58.6 57.3 29.4 33.5 37.7 3.7 3.7 4.5 1.83 1.81 1.83 29.1 29.1 33.3 16.9 16.3 12.1 1.63 1.67 1.67 15.7 9.3 65.1 11.9 23.8 1.2 51.2 1.81 2.57 2.33 3.37 1.68 18.1 22.5 55.1 4.4 8.4 3.1 33.5 13.8 41.6 11.0 23.0 2.3

44.9 44.9 5.0 1.79 23.0 25.3 1.91 16.3 25.3 55.1 3.4 36.0 0 62.7 2.37 2.11 2.21 3.36 1.75

39.4 46.2 51.0 51.9 3.9 3.8 1.77 1.77 38.1 37.7 6.5 13.2 1.71 1.76 26.5 9.0 57.4 7.1 8.4 0 74.2 2.59 2.04 2.20 3.49 1.70 45.3 12.3 35.8 6.6 24.5 0 61.9 2.31 2.31 2.47

79.5 73.1 14.9 19.1 4.5 5.3 1.87 2.0 27.4 13.2 17.2 25.9 1.76 1.8 20.8 27.9 47.8 3.6 5.5 0 63.5 2.21 2.81 2.60

15.6 16.2 59.8 8.3

48.5 0

45.3 48.7 1.74 1.83 2.50 2.70 2.27 2.45 3.41 1.66 3.33 1.66

67.2 2.1 2.9 2.4

3.44 3.25 1.68_1.68

3.1 1.6

which score is fortheCES-D level forallvariables, atthe.0001 are between national *A11 thedifferences depression except significant origin groups their and scales ofitems scoring. specific composing description

770

International

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in between. The highest GPAs are found for students with Afro-Caribbean hours (all the Asianthe highest ratios of homework-to-television-watching over time and generations Significantly, origin groups plus the Jamaicans). test scores go up but the number in the United States, reading achievement - a that of hours spent on homework goes down, as do GPAs finding in students similar findings California and confirms among immigrant elsewhere (Caplan d al, 1991; Gibson, 1989; Olsen, 1988; Rumbaut, 1990, 1989; Sung, 1987). Most of 1995; Rumbaut and Ima, 1988; Suarez-Orozco, the national origins groups report very high educational led by aspirations, and Mexicans, the Jamaicans and other Asians; the Laotians, Cambodians, than all other groups. on the other hand, exhibit notably lower aspirations Table 3 also presents data on family size and structure, and on the quality There is a notable contrast between all Asianof parent-child relationships. of families origin groups and the rest of the sample in the higher proportion with both natural parents at home; the somewhat higher incidence of father the Cambodians is due not to absence among the Hmong and especially divorce but to the death of the father prior to arrival in the United States, harsh contexts of exit (Rumbaut, of the extraordinarily a reflection 1991). of all families from the Afro-Caribbean have no father About one-half present at home. The research literature has pointed to the high levels of and orientation sense of obligation to the familism - of a deeply ingrained in particular (e.g., see Suarez-Orozco family among Mexican immigrants and Suarez-Orozco, 1995; Vega, et al, 1983). A high score in this measure of collectivistic to the family contrasts with the pull of individu? obligations alistic values in the American milieu. Our data here confirm that Mexican exhibit significantly higher scores on the familism values scale respondents all of the Indochinese than any other group, with one major exception: score even higher on groups, who also have the largest family-households, that scale. Yet the lack of parental resources is among the Indochinese underscored by the fact that their parents are least likely by far to be the main source of help to their children with their school work. At the same children are the most likely by far to report feeling time, Indochinese embarrassed their 36% of the Hmong) and to exhibit by parents (including conflict scale scores, along with Haitian children. the highest parent-child and other West Cuban parents, Jamaican along with English-speaking Indian parents, are the most likely to be the principal source of school-re? Cubans and Nicaraguans lated help to their children. report the lowest our scale. levels of parent-child conflict as measured and by Jamaican their Mexican youths are the least likely to feel embarrassed by parents. of our exploratory dimension and study involves perceptions of our racial-ethnic discrimination reported by experiences respondents. of practically about threeSubstantial every group majorities including fourths of the Jamaicans and two-thirds of the Mexicans, Haitians, Filipinos, A crucial

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771

and Indochinese-reported against and many also having felt discriminated to be discriminated against no matter how much education they expected and other Latin Americans in Nicaraguan, might earn. Cuban, Colombian, Miami reported lower levels of prejudice and generally disagreed with the of edu? statement that people would discriminate against them regardless cational merit. The Cubans and then the Indochinese state-sponsored refugee groups who have been the recipients of substantial public assistance with the statement that "There is reported the highest level of agreement no better country to live in than the United States." Those groups, along with the Filipinos and other Asians, also scored highest on the American scale (indicating for "American ways"). Haitians preferences preferences and Jamaicans, at the other extreme, scored by far the lowest on those measures. self-esteem scale Finally, Table 3 presents the scores on the Rosenberg and on the CES-D depression subscale for all of the nationality groups. the Indochinese the Mexicans and especially showed the Significantly, lowest global self-esteem scores, with the lowest score in the sample found The highest scores were found among for the Hmong. self-esteem the from Jamaica and the other English-speaking West Indies, respondents followed by Haiti, Cuba, and the other Latin American groups. However, - the the Haitians and the Jamaicans principal groups from the Afro-Car? with and expectations of racial ibbean, who reported the most experiences in the sample - also exhibited the highest depression discrimination scores. are inversely related, but they are not simply two Self-esteem and depression sides of the same psychological further coin; this issue will be examined below through multiple regression analyses of these two variables.

Characteristics

of Children

of Immigrants

by Ethnic

Identity

Table 4 presents data on the same set of variables as in Table 3, but broken down by the major types of ethnic identities reported by the respondents. Table 4 makes it quite clear that each identity type has a statistically and distinct social profile. Briefly, a few main points should be significant here and then examined more closely in the logistic regressions highlighted that follow. While less than one-half the sample is in the Dade County (Miami) area, as American were in Dade County 82 percent of all respondents identifying white respondents). self-identi? (as were most phenotypically Respondents fying as American are much more likely to be U.S.-born males, with at least one U.S.-born parent who also (especially if it is the mother) self-identifies and higher social status families. as American, living in smaller households, with high educa? These respondents are more linguistically assimilated, mediocre tional aspirations grades and lesser effort despite comparatively

TAJBLE 4 in SouthernCaliforniaandSouth Florida,1992,bySe Social Characteristics of Childrenof Immigrants o Racial/Planet Ethnic Identity Types Racial/ Panethnic or Hyphenated"American" American National Identity "Hispanic" "Chican OriginMixed Social Characteristics (659) (123) (1,082) (1,391) (2,062) (592) Location 37.6 100.0 50.5 54.9 49.4 % San 12.8 Diego County 58.1 0 45.5 45.4 37.6 % Dade 82.3 County 0 4.2 4.1 7.5 5.6 4.9 % Broward County and Gender Age 43.1 60.2 47.2 47.1 47.1 Males 63.0 % 14.4 14.1 14.3 14.3 14.1 14.2 (years) Age and Nativity Citizenship 38.9 91.1 46.9 59.6 20.4 % U.S.-Born 95.9 52.5 60.0 36.3 74.0 U.S. citizen 91.1 % 40.6 13.8 33.7 43.3 than inU.S. 8.9 19.8 Less 10years % 77.7 76.4 72.6 90.2 53.7 76.8 Both conationals % parents 8.5 16.3 3.5 13.3 14.6 isU.S.-born % One 25.8 parent Status Socioeconomic 17.0 4.1 15.3 22.9 iscollege 30.6 Father 23.3 % graduate 3.3 12.6 19.4 12.7 iscollege 22.5 Mother 25.7 % graduate 23.2 22.8 26.8 17.9 28.0 23.4 Father notinlabor force % 33.2 51.2 36.6 39.6 30.0 Mother notinlabor force 28.7 % 38.4 29.3 40.2 61.7 46.2 67.9 home % Own Language % only English speak % English prefer with % English parents speak with friends % English speak Index (1-4) Proficiency English Index (1-4) Foreign Language Education test Stanford Reading (percentile) Math test Stanford (percentile) Grade (GPA) average point onhomework Hours (0-5) daily ratio Hours-of-homework-to-TV Educational (1-5) aspirations 10.6 89.9 55.2 42.1 3.87 2.61 49.2 60.8 2.39 1.37 0.89 4.42 78.4 47.1 34.1 3.79 2.62 44.3 55.4 2.61 1.59 0.96 4.37 5.8 60.6 28.2 26.4 3.58 2.85 38.9 52.8 2.63 1.56 1.05 4.25 4.8 63.4 25.2 22.6 3.60 2.99 34.1 44.0 2.29 1.23 0.85 4.12 0.3 61.6 16.7 13.1 3.58 3.23 34.8 45.9 2.30 1.19 0.84 4.20 2.4 43.9 14.6 8.9 3.56 3.14 22.0 27.8 1.93 0.89 0.66 3.63

Parents and Family 55.7 59.4 54.8 66.2 61.5 66.4 athome % Both natural parents 38.2 34.2 38.4 26.0 31.9 28.0 from home absent % Father 4.7 4.3 4.4 4.6 4.1 3.6 size Family-household 1.93 2.10 1.95 1.95 1.81 1.84 scale Familism values (1-4) 24.9 15.4 23.8 22.7 31.7 35.1 main school % Parents are help 9.7 9.8 12.3 17.9 17.2 20.6 %Embarassed byparents 1.85 1.67 1.72 1.75 1.70 1.68 scale conflict Parent-child (1-4) of Mother Ethnic Identity 10.6 22.0 22.6 9.2 21.7 50.2 % as"American" Identify 12.4 12.2 13.3 5.9 33.1 23.3 % asHyphenated-American 52.0 64.2 50.3 80.9 41.2 22.6 National % Identity Origin 13.5 13.0 13.7 4.0 4.0 3.9 % Racial/Panethnic/Mixed Schools 66.7 42.8 42.5 31.1 19.9 24.3 schools % ininner-city 0 1.2 0.8 0.9 5.6 . 11.5 schools inbilingual % private Views of U.S. and Discrimination 54.3 71.5 57.5 62.2 54.0 37.9 discriminated %been against 1.89 2.27 2.00 2.13 1.75 1.98 discrimination (1-4) Expects 2.60 2.72 2.62 2.55 3.08 2.86 isbest U.S. (1-4) country 2.32 2.34 2.38 2.27 2.78 2.53 scale American (1-4) preference Status Psychological 3.28 3.15 3.27 3.23 3.31 3.41 scale Self-esteem (1-4) subscale CES-D depression (1-4)_L59_L64_L69_L68_L69_L63_L75_L67_1.66 *Alldifferences subscale sc fortheCES-D the.0001 level forallvariables, are ethnic between depression beyond except identity significant groups their and ofitems 1fordescription and Table Seetext scales, atthe.01level. scoring. composing specific significant

774

International

Migration

Review

invested in homework (but more in leisure time activities, such as television), least likely to be attending schools in the inner city or to have experienced most likely to view the United States as the best country in which discrimination, to live, to endorse individualistic values (lowest familism scores), and to have a robust psychosocial profile (higher self-esteem, lower depression). This general picture, in fact, describes rather well the hypothesized expectation of one form to one sector of American of assimilation society, the white middle-class mainstream (cf Alba, 1990; Gans, 1992; Portes and Zhou, 1993). Indeed, with most of the variables listed in Table 4, there appears to be a linear progression as one moves along the continuum from a national to to American. The origin identity hyphenated-American strong impres? level of analysis is that of a sion that these data give at this bivariate movement distant from the original immigra? generational increasingly and its ethos - toward greater identificational tion experience assimilation Americanization or identificational accompanied by upward socioeconomic and greater acculturation, discrimination, mobility, increasing decreasing The binational well-being. psychological hyphenated-American identity, in Table 4, appears as a transitional It can be seen intergenerational identity. between the ancestral and the assimilative as a middle position national - and identities, although perhaps more difficult to maintain perhaps even unstable as bilingualism and other additive adaptations as inherently have life (cf Child, to be in American 1943:67; 1983:90; proven Cropley, That remains to be seen empirically, Woldemikael, 1989:105ff). however, and hinges on a variety of factors - not the least on future patterns of - as the these cohorts unfolds over the course intermarriage among process The sustained development of the next generation. of vibrant, institution? communities as in Cuban Miami may yet be able ally complete immigrant to provide fertile ground for the long-run maintenance of such syncretic But while it is well to keep in mind that only 592 respondents adaptations. out of 5,127 (11%) identified as American, in comparison with the 2,062 an crafted who additive or (40%) hyphenated-American identity, and the to a 1,391 (27%) who remained loyal national-origin identity, the evidence to shifts cannot be ignored. pointing potentially large-scale generational On the other hand, the profile shown in Table 4 for the dissimilative racial identities reported by another 1,082 respondents and panethnic (21%) does linear movement not at all fit the seemingly toward identificational assimi? The category lation into the mainstream. absorbs a variety of distinct racial-ethnic (Chicano, Black, Hispanic) minority group self-identifications must be examined that are shaped by and ultimately in their own concrete Chicano and Black emerge in these data as social and historical contexts. reactive ethnic identities (cf Portes and chiefly U.S. born second-generation while as a more inclusive, Rumbaut, 1990:131-139), Hispanic appears alternative for born (1.5 panethnic foreign generation) youths of smaller

The Crucible

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775

Americas (such as Nica? national-origin groups from the Spanish-speaking is and Discrimination and expected to Colombians). experienced raguans as a greater extent by respondents Chicano and Black than identifying by any other, as Table 4 shows, while that is not the case for those identifying as Hispanic (or other mixed identities). The everyday school contexts and associated peer subcultures of students who identify in racial or panethnic terms, however, stand in sharp contrast to those of youths who select ancestral, additive, or assimilative identities, A much greater proportion of Chicano-identified youths (67%) are concen? trated in inner city schools than of any other identity type, and they are followed by youths self-identifying as Black and Hispanic (43% of whom attend inner city schools). The acquisition of such counteridentities among in inner-city neighborhoods these adolescents may thus reflect processes of differential association within their relevant social contexts, the including of oppositional or adversarial subcultures and outlooks, and development into the urban underclass of assimilation and Ogbu, 1987; (Fordham Matute-Bianchi, 1986, 1991; Portes and Zhou, 1993). McLeod, 1987; Ogbu, 1974, 1987, 1991;

Predictors

of Ethnic

Identities:An

Odds

Ratio

Analysis

Table 5 presents the results of maximum-likelihood logistic regressions the odds of selecting each of the four main types of ethnic predicting self-identification. Several sets of predictor variables - measuring gender, with parents and ethnic nativity and citizenship, aspects of relationships and acculturation, and experiences/expectations of socialization, language - are entered to test the hypothesized discrimination effects on ethnic status is provided by a dummy identity choices. A measure of socioeconomic variable for parents who work in high-status professions. (Parents' education in Table 5 but had no significant and home ownership are not included effects in earlier runs.) Dummy variables for all of the major national-origin groups are also included in the equations (Cubans serve as the comparison (Dade group), as well as for San Diego and Broward County locations County serves as the comparison group), and for inner city and private Of course, especially with measures of subjective percep? school contexts. tions and preferences, ethnic self-identification may have the effect of as well as being influenced data it influencing by them; with cross-sectional such reciprocal effects unambiguously. is not possible to disentangle For our in Table 5 should be results presented here, the multivariate purposes construed not as direct causal influences but as relationships between ethnic and selected factors. identity A first intriguing in difference finding is that gender makes a significant the choice of most forms of ethnic self-identification. Males are more likely

TABLE5 Childrenof Im of Ethnic IdentityAmong PredictorsandOddsof Selecting Four Types LogisticRegressions Resultsof Maximum-Likelihood "American" Nationa Hyphenated-American B Variables B Predictor Sig Sig. Odds Sig. Odds andCitizenship Gender, Nativity, 0.77 0.20 1.71 -0.26 0.54 Gender (l=male; 0=female) 1.84 -1.56 0.61 7.48 2.01 U.S.-born 1.56 -0.46 0.44 1.77 U.S. citizen 0.57 Naturalized Socialization Parents andEthnic Both conationals parents U.S.-born One parent as identifies Mother "American" Hyphenated-American oforigin Nationality minority Racial/panethnic Mixed orother ethnic identity are Parents professionals homework are main Parents help Embarassed byparents and Acculturation Language with friends English Speaks Prefers English Index (1-4) Proficiency English Index (1-4) Language Foreign scale American preference (1-4) Discrimination Been discriminated against discrimination (1-4) Expects Location schools Ininner-city schools Inprivate InSan County Diego InBroward County InDade County -0.84 -0.49 0.68 0.26 -0.11 0.39 0.04 -0.24 a NS NS NS NI NS 0.79 1.46 b b NS NS a b NS NS NS a b NI 1.50 1.68 1.94 0.69 0.43 0.61 1.97 0.33 0.25 0.05 0.66 -0.11 -0.17 -0.19 0.26 0.01 -0.19 0.13 0.37 -0.11 0.03 -0.04 -0.04 -0.06 0.04 -0.52 0.33 NS a NS NS NI ? b NS c NS a b NS NS NS NS NS b c NI 1.39 1.29 0.58 0.18 -0.26 -0.71 0.56 -0.71 0.83 1.29 0.19 -0.00 0.00 -0.06 -0.28 -0.13 0.09 -0.45 0.12 0.08 -0.31 -0.70 0.20 0.43

NI ? NS NS

0.41 0.52 -0.16 -0.06 0.66 -0.37 -0.03 0.05 0.17 -1.60 -0.94

0.83 1.45 0.89

NS b NS c a

0.20 0.39

0.59 1.39

? c NS c NI

ofParents National Origin Cuban Mexican Nicaraguan Latin Other American Haitian Jamaican Indies Other West Filipino Vietnamese Cambodian and Laotian Other Asian

-0.82 0.42 0.56 0.16 0.58 -0.39 -0.77 0.46 0.98 -0.11

NI c NS b NS NS NS c NS NS NS

0.44 1.75

0.46

0.01 -1.36 -1.16 -0.54 -0.85 -0.93 0.89 0.93 0.45 0.60 961

NI NS a a b a a a a NS c (35) 4,936

0.26 0.31 0.59 0.43 0.39 2.44 2.54 1.82 a

-0.68 -0.34 -0.04 0.25 0.77 0.78 0.59 0.39 0.69 0.42 1,580

NI c c NS NS b c c NS c NS

offreedom) Model X2(degrees 1,158 (35) inanalysis ofcases Number 4,936 Mean ofdependent variable_J15_402_:271_.211_

(35 4,93

shown. inequation NI=Not included NS=Not Statistical Significant; cp<.05; p<.01; significance: ap<.0001;

778

International

Migration

Review

in unhyphenated terms as American or by national to identify origin, whereas females are more likely to choose an additive binational (hyphen? in separate analyses of different ated) identity label. Moreover, types of identities racial/panethnic among the Latin American-origin youths in our more likely to choose a Hispanic identity; sample, females were significantly males were much more likely to identify as among Mexican-origin youths, In a review of 70 empirical studies in the relevant research Chicano. results that allow no firm literature, Phinney (1990) found only fragmentary in ethnic identity. However, in a recent about gender differences conclusions of gender, race, and ethnicity among adolescent study of the intersection in New York, Waters (forthcoming) children of black Caribbean immigrants that the attached to different gender reports shapes meanings types of American an ethnic self-identity, She including identity. suggests that the between different types of identity are more fluid and perme? boundaries able for girls than for boys and that the task of developing a racial and ethnic identity is bound up with issues of gender identity as well. root, Nativity (the word share siwth "nation" and "nation" a common of "birth") is very closely linked to identity. Indeed, the evidence meaning in the self-identity discontinuities vs. generational profiles of U.S.-born - and of their children of immigrants to foreign-born varying attachment the homeland of their parents - is a finding that merits underscoring in our analysis. Table 5 shows that being born in the United States (i.e., second rather than 1.5 generation status) is by far the strongest predic? generation as American tor of identifying (odds or probability ratio of 7.48 to 1). It is a significant of selecting a hyphenated-American label positive predictor of 1.84 to 1). In addition, U.S. birth is the strongest negative (odds-ratio for predictor of identifying by national origin (odds of 1 in 5), controlling all other variables in the equations. U.S. citizen (which for legal immigrants requires of five years after arrival or admission to waiting period to this pattern. Citizenship matters, permanent residency) adds moderately over and above nativity. It may be interpreted here as signaling a stake in the society as a full-fledged member, legally as well as subjectively, with an shift in one's frame of reference. Indeed, these variables accompanying - have far and effects on ethnic self-identifica? nativity citizenship stronger tion than our measure of years in the United States, suggesting that it is not so much the length of time in the country, but rather the nature of one's status that is more determinative of the psychol? sociopolitical membership ogy of identity. Becoming a minimum The parents' own nativity itself of the child. Having socialization boosts the odds that significantly more and, nationality moderately, exerts a strong influence in the ethnic both parents born in the same nation the child will identify with the parents' the odds of keeping part of it by identia naturalized

The Crucible

Within

779

It also significantly the odds of self-defining decreases tying binationally. an as American. assimilatively unhyphenated Having one parent born in increases the United States and the other foreign born significantly the will that a of a the children binational adopt strategy choosing probability American identity. An even stronger and very rather than an unhyphenated of the mother's own clearcut pattern evident in Table 5 is the influence who perceive their mother identifying herself ethnic identity. Respondents in the same manner - and, increase their odds of identifying as American similar increase their chances of identifying as 2-to-l odds, they by roughly national or of a hyphenated-American, a racial or by origin, adopting in that minority label if they believe their mother self-identifies panethnic way as well.5 The effect of the mother's perceived identity was stronger than the father's, pointing to the possibly stronger effect of mothers in ethnic (and other) socialization processes, along with the actual absence of fathers in a substantial number of these families. are significantly Immigrant parents who are higher-status professionals their children's more likely to influence selection of a national origin the odds of choosing a hyphenated-American identity, while reducing families the child may have identity. In such upper middle-class immigrant more reason to associate social honor with and to feel pride in the national has observed the child's (1979:13), identity of the parents. As Rosenberg sense of self-worth is in part contingent on the prestige of the elements of social identity. In this instance, the net result suggests a linear extension and reaffirmation of the cultural past rather than an emergent reaction to the American present. This finding is in accord with theoretical expectations that identity shifts tend to be from lower to higher status groups, all other for a related things being equal (Yinger, 1981; see Waters, this volume, In of the of status and addition, parents who analysis relationship identity). are the main source of help or social support with their children's school work - and hence perhaps more involved, in and influential interested, other aspects of the children's their ethnic socialization lives, including reduce the odds that their children will pick up either an significantly or a racial/panethnic American label. On the other hand, self-identity - and hence not who respondents by report feeling embarrassed proud of - their are much more to as American.6 likely parents identify assimilatively In short, the above set of variables involving and the parental resources of the underscore fundamental influence parent-child relationships quality of the family as a crucible of ethnic socialization in this diverse processes sample of children of immigrants (cf Alba, 1990; Rumbaut and Rumbaut, 1976). Language maintenance Cropley, is also closely, and affectively, connected to the formation and of ethnic identity - both within and without the family (see and Suarez-Orozco, 1983; Phinney, 1990, 1991; Suarez-Orozco

780

International

Migration

Review

who prefer English and who speak only English with 1995). Respondents more likely to identify as American, their close friends are significantly and national who less likely to self-define do not by origin. Conversely, youths in their and who native report greater fluency parents' prefer English are most apt to identify by national origin. Indeed, languages acquiring not only a mother tongue but also a personal English may entail abandoning identity. In the middle, are the bilingual children who choose additive or of selecting identities. The likelihood that type of hyphenated-American with both a greater level of English proficiency and identity is associated friends children of with close whom do not (also immigrants) they having in these reflect choices not Thus, speak only English. identity only linguistic acculturation patterns but also how and which languages are used with close relevant social contexts. Net of language prefer? friends in interpersonally in our data set was also significantly ences, another measure of acculturation - those associated with ethnic self-identity youths with higher scores in the scale (i.e., who prefer American ways) are more apt American preferences as unhyphenated to identify themselves Americans; youths with lower scores are apt to self-identify ancestral by origin. on ethnic self-identity What are the effects of discrimination among these who have experienced discrimina? youths? As Table 5 shows, respondents less likely to identify as American. tion are significantly who Respondents expect that people will discriminate against them no matter the level of education they may achieve are also more likely to maintain a national-ori? of exclusion and rejection on gin identity. Such experiences/perceptions - on ascribed rather than achieved statuses racial-ethnic grounds clearly undercut the prospect of identificational assimilation into the mainstream. On the other hand, among the various racial and panethnic identity types, of discrimination were significantly associated perceptions only with the selection of a Chicano self-identity. Location - that is, the social contexts of in which these youths are growing up - also counts school and community a great deal, as Table 5 shows. Attending inner city schools where most students are racial-ethnic minorities increases the odds of significantly a racial or for panethnic developing identity (particularly youths reporting while decreasing a Black self-identity) the odds of identifying ancestrally by national origin. Precisely the opposite effect is seen for those attending the two upper middle-class private schools. These results provide empirical assimilation (Portes and Zhou, 1993), support for a segmented perspective here applied to the process of ethnic self-definition. In addition, compared in San Diego are much less likely to identify to the Miami area, respondents bSeeAlba (1990:187-194) for related results on the effects of parents' ethnic identity status. ^This familiar latter result reflects Child's (1943) depiction of the "rebel"reaction to intergen? erational conflicts among second-generation Italian Americans.

The Crucible

Within

781

as American with or without a hyphen, but much more likely to identify in racial or panethnic minority terms. Ironically, the Miami area, despite its turns out to be more of immigrants, high proportion extraordinarily maintream identities among to the development of assimilative conducive in our sample than expected. the teenage respondents in these equations, Finally, with all other predictor variables controlled of national origins on the mode of ethnic the influence Table 5 examines This is an important self-identification. issue, since if ethnic identification and related social proc? was determined acculturation, discrimination, by esses, we would expect to find few if any nationality effects. To a large extent national identities (i.e., American this is the case for the two unhyphenated American in particular is largely accounted and national origin). Becoming for by predictor variables already discussed above; almost all nationalities of Mexicans and wash out of that analysis, with the notable exceptions are less mainstream to call themselves The Americans). likely Filipinos (who Jamaicans emerge here as the group most likely to identify in national-ori? gin terms. in are very pronounced However, the effects of particular nationalities and racial/panethnic the selection of additive/hyphenated identities. Two here. First, compared to Cubans in Miami (the broad patterns emerge the reference group in these analyses), the Asian-origin groups, especially Vietnamese and Filipinos, are far more likely to develop additive binational identities; all of the Latin American and Afro-Caribbean groups, except for are significantly less likely to do so. On the other hand, the Mexicans, nations greatly decreases the odds of coming from any of the Asian-origin in racial or minority terms; coming from certain self-defining panethnic Latin American countries, as well as Haiti and the other West Indies groups, increases those odds. Why this is so poses intriguing theoretical significantly and policy questions. National origin indicators are in effect proxies for the and diverse histories, social structures and cultures of these immi? complex to the variables employed which, while not reducible grant communities, in this study, nonetheless the of their self-definitions shape significantly will To extensive delve into these issues comparative-histori? youth. require research. cal and ethnographic

Predictors

of Hispanic

and

Chicano

Ethnic

Identities

(not shown in Table 5) were run for selected Separate logistic regressions to explore the association of variables with specific types of subsamples as such self-identities, racial/panethnic Hispanic and Chicano. These results For summarized an be here. analysis of the odds of selecting a may briefly of 3,033 respondents we the examined of identity, Hispanic subsample Latin American origins. The results show that a Hispanic self-identification

782

International

Migration

Review

more likely to be made by females: who are foreign-born, is significantly in U.S. less than 10 years, whose English is poor but whose Spanish the living is very good, and who speak in Spanish with their parents and close friends; who are not embarrassed by their parents; and whose parents are not and themselves terms or as a mixed conationals identify in panethnic - the Colombi? Latin-origin identity. The smaller-size groups Nicaraguans, ans, and other Latin Americans (but not Cubans or Mexicans) - are shown to be much more likely to select Hispanic as an ethnic identity. For an analysis of the odds of selecting a Chicano identity, we focused of Mexican origin in San on the subsample of 729 respondents separately show that Chicano The a self-identification is significantly results Diego. more likely to be made by males, who are U.S. born (the odds are huge, 37 to 1) and whose close friends are also U.S.-born. They are significantly more to feel that have been discriminated Moreover, they against. likely among the lower their academic grade point averages (GPAs) these 729 teenagers, and occupational and the lower their educational the greater aspirations, as Chicano. This significant the odds of their identifying association of and low educational attainment with a Chicano ethnic flattened aspirations in our identity is not found for any other type of ethnic self-identification data set. It supports related findings reported in the literature that link a Chicano self-definition among U.S.-born high school youth with the devel? of adversarial modes of reaction. These include defensive nonopment in the classroom, of bleak adult futures, strategies learning anticipation defined as acting white, and rejection of school and rejection of behaviors in contrast to the more optimistic of teachers, outlook and valuation of Mexico-born Vos and reported among immigrant youth (De schooling Suarez-Orozco, 1990; 1995; Vigil, 1988). Matute-Bianchi, 1986, 1991; Suarez-Orozco, 1991,

Predictors

of Self Esteem

and

Depressive

Symptoms

Table 6 shifts our focus to a multiple regression analysis of two key psycho? 10-item variables: self-esteem (the scale) and logical dependent Rosenberg depressive symptoms (CES-D subscale). Both equations examine the effects to influence those cognitive of several sets of variables hypothesized and of psychosocial affective dimensions adaptation:gender, age, and nativity; status and parent-child relations; English and foreign family socioeconomic school and expectations of attainment; proficiency; experiences language and ethnic identity and national origins. In both equations, discrimination; variable associated with lower self-esteem by far the strongest predictor (beta = -.267) and higher depression (beta = .281) was our measure of conflict. For that reason, given the importance of such inter? parent-child conflict in psychosocial processes among children generational adaptation

The Crucible

Within

783

of immigrants, the results of a multiple regression analysis of parent-child conflict are presented correlates principal Table 7.

to identify separately

the in

Gender emerges here as the next strongest predictor of psychological lower self-esteem, and especially higher levels of well-being. Significantly are found depressive symptomatology, among females in this sample, a finding consistent with other studies of adolescents Phin1979:287; (see Rosenberg, of as well as adults ney, 1991) among immigrant/nonimmigrant majority and minority populations (see Vega and Rumbaut, 1991). Interestingly, lower self-esteem is also associated with being U.S. born (second-generation status), a finding that parallels research in Britain that found that the self-esteem of West Indian girls born in Britain was lower than those born in the West Indies That may be related to differing comparative frames (Cropley, 1983:107-108). of reference between the foreign born and the native born, and to the shift from immigrant into ethnic minority status (cf Suarezgenerational Orozco and Suarez-Orozco, 1995). By contrast a significant though relatively weak effect is seen in the net association between being a recent arrival to the United States and depressive symptoms, a finding consistent with the expec? tations of theories of acculturative stress among immigrants (Laosa, 1990; Vega and Rumbaut, 1991). measures of socioeconomic status, the objective their that economic situation respondents' family's perception compared to five years before had worsened was significantly associated with decreased self-esteem as well as increased and parent-child conflict - a depression result that points to the psychological costs of downward and mobility in our sample. The unemployment economic stress for the adolescents of the father and even more so, the absence of the father from the home are related to higher depression and lower self-esteem. The father's level of education is significantly and positively related to (but not the mother's) - self-esteem Both psychological self-esteem. variables and dependent -worsen when the respondent has no one at home or elsewhere depression to help with school work, when the respondent feels embarrassed by his or her parents, and especially, by the level of parent-child conflict and dero? outcomes gation. Family contexts clearly shape psychological among these in the this are and in line with youths; findings regard unexceptional conventional theories. and educational achievement measures English language competence are significantly and positively related to self esteem and psychological the higher the English language proficiency index Specifically, well-being. and the higher the academic GPA, the higher the self-esteem score and the lower the depression of English in particular showed a score. Knowledge association with the psycho? self-esteem, very strong positive underscoring of in acculturation for children of logical importance linguistic immigrants More than the other

784

International

Migration

Review

TABLE 6 Symptoms andDepressive Among Childrenof Immigrants: Predictorsof Self-Esteem Multiple Regressions_ of Least-Squares _Results Y=Self-Esteem Y=Depressive Symptoms Beta B S.E. B S.E. Beta Sig. Sigand Gender, Nativity Age, Gender 0=female) (l=male; Age(years) U.S.-born < 10years inU.S. Foreign-bom .118 .022 -.028 .014 .008 .014 .113 .035 -.027 NS -.281 .051 .017 .021 -.222 .035

NS NS

Status Socioeconomic Family level educational Father's (1-6) notemployed Father -.046 from home absent Father situation -.026 economic Worse family Parents conflict scale Parent-child (1^1) Embarassed byparents are main homework Parents help with Noonehelps homework and Schooling Language Index (1^1) Proficiency English Index (1^1) Language Foreign (LEP) -.150 Limited-English-Proficient .057 Grade (GPA) average point Discrimination Been discriminated against discrimination (1-4) Expects National Ethnic Identity, Origin1 Black Filipino Vietnamese variance Explained .169 -.138 -.083

.015 .008 .012 .009 .016 .017 .023 .008

-.040 -.039 -.267 -.097 NS

NS

.052 .106 .044

.022 .020 .011 .015 .011

.035 .076 .054 .281 .050 NS

.042 .060

.020 -.102 .098 -.063 .090 .022 .010 .018 .009 .071 .036 NS NS NS R*=.200 NS NS

.065 .019 .026

.033 -.099 -.042

R2=.281

NSNotSignificant Statistical significance: p<.01; cp<.05; ap<.0001; identities ornational had [Noother ethnic (American, Chicano) Hyphenated-American, Hispanic, self-reported origin groups inthese effects significant equations. statistically American social contexts, especially in the schools. Indeed, net of the level of English language being labeled and assigned to classes as a proficiency, associated Limited English Proficient (LEP) student in school is significantly not with depressive A with diminished self-esteem (although symptoms). for non-English-speaking LEP status is a common designation immigrants status which typically places them in public schools, as well as a stigmatized curriculum and exposes them to outside the mainstream English-language By contrast, the foreign language teasing and ridicule by other students. index score was not significantly associated with either depend? proficiency not shown in Table 6, higher self-esteem ent variable. Also, although is aspirations. strongly associated with higher educational ously With cross-sectional data, of course, we cannot here untangle unambigu? or even the sequence the causal dynamics of effects in all of these

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with subjective variables such as educational particularly also with variables as GPA. It may be that but such objective aspirations, are effects involved Schooler and 1994; Rosenberg, (Owens, reciprocal 1989; Faunce, 1984), and we will need to wait to reinterview Schoenbach, the sample in 1995 and add a longitudinal dimension to our study in order to more clearly sort out the temporal ordering of variables and effects. associations effects of racial-ethnic discrimination The noxious are psychological against apparent in the results shown in Table 6. Having been discriminated it does elevates depressive symptoms significantly although interestingly, on not have a significant effect self-esteem. discrimina? However, expected tion -i.e., agreeing with the statement that "people will discriminate against me regardless of how far I go with my education" - is significantly associated and decreased with both increased depression self-esteem. With perceived and the other variables controlled, one discrimination only type of ethnic was significantly and none with associated with self-esteem, self-identity scores. Specifically, a Black self-identity was positively associated depression a result suggesting that such a mode of self-identi? with higher self-esteem, fication serves a psychologically protective function (cf Porter and Washing? ethnic self-identity showed any significant ton, 1993). No other reported or with self-esteem. That positive negative relationship finding is in accord with the available research literature (Phinney, 1991; Rosenberg, 1979), and but erroneous folk wisdom that minority group or debunks the enduring lower-SES children ipso facto must have lower self-esteem. Indeed, the broad is that ethnic self-definitions may be chosen or accepted to the implication extent that they are protective of the youth's sense of self-regard in relevant social contexts. Conversely, among national-origin groups, the Vietnamese the Filipinos were the only nationalities still flagged by the and especially data as reflecting statistically significantly lower self-esteem scores, suggest? to other groups certain psychosocial vulnerabilities ing that in comparison or dynamics and Filipino children of immigrants not among Vietnamese sense of self-worth. captured here by our data may be linked to a diminished All other nationalities, however, washed out of the regression equation outcomes. self-esteem analyzing

Predictors

of Parent-Child

Conflict

Finally, Table 7 presents the results of a multiple regression analysis predict? conflict scale scores. We examined a broad array of poten? ing parent-child and will briefly highlight some of tial objective and subjective predictors, determi? Here is a the most noteworthy significant findings. again gender of immigrant nant. The daughters parents are more likely than sons to be - a involved in such conflicts and instances of parental derogation possible reflection of the clash between restrictive parental standards for behavior,

786

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sense of and desire for dating and the like, against the girls' increasing from parental control in the transition and independence to individuality adulthood and Ima, 1991; Rumbaut 1995; Matute-Bianchi, (cf Gibson, 1988; Waters, forthcoming; Woldemikael, 1989). Net of the other factors controlled for in this analysis, age and U.S. nativity are not significantly conflict. Instead, such conflicts appear more likely related to parent-child to occur among the most recently arrived immigrant families in our sample. Several objective and subjective features of the family context are particu? in the parent-child with frictions Table 7 larly associated relationship. in more that such frictions to occur are families where the likely suggests situation of the family has mother is less educated and where the economic worsened. conflict is significantly Parent-child in reduced perceptively families with both natural parents at home and where both parents and siblings are available/relied upon as main sources of help with school work - all of which here not only as indicators be of available may interpreted and social but also of resources cohesion. family family support Conversely, where the youth feels embarrassed conflict with parents is exacerbated by his or her parents and where the youth has no one to seek out for help with school work. and education are central issues in the relationship of immi? Language and which their conflict children and may spark grant parents derogation between them. As Table 7 shows, conflict is significantly increased in cases where the child prefers English and also has a poor command of the - a as well as recipe for communication parental native language problems, families, posing problems of parental control and authority. In Vietnamese to take one example, infuriated when a teenage son parents are sometimes switches to English, with its egalitarian pronoun "you," in order deliberately in Vietnamese, to avoid speaking which would require the son to use the numerous which due deference is paid to the authority pronouns through of the parents (Rumbaut and Ima, 1988). Conflict with parents is also exacerbated by the greater the number of hours the children spent watching television and the fewer the hours they spent on homework, the lower their academic GPA, and the lower the youths' educational aspirations -variables that paint a fairly vivid picture of the nature of the clashing discourses and concerns over which tensions develop in the parent-child rela? competing tionship. is itself associated Lastly, as Table 7 shows, the issue of discrimination conflict: the more the youth has experienced strongly with parent-child being discriminated against and the more the youth perceives that "people will discriminate against me regardless of how far I go with my education," the more conflict there appears to be in the parent-child relationship because the outlook that sees discrimination as perhaps implicit trumping education contradicts parents' folk theories of success (Gibson, immigrant

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7 TABLE Childrenof Immigrants Predictorsof Parent-ChildConflict Among Y=Parent-Child Conflict S.E. Variables Predictor and Gender, Nativity Age, Gender (1=male; 0=female) Age(years) U.S.-born < 10 years inU.S. Foreign-bom Socioeconomic Status Family level educational Mother's (1-6) Worse economic situation family Parents athome natural Both parents Embarassed byparents are main Parents homework help are main homework help Siblings Noonehelps with homework and Schooling Language Index (1-4) Proficiency English Index (1-4) Foreign Language (LEP) Limited-English-Proficient Prefers 0=no) English (l=yes; Grade (GPA) point average Educational (1-5) aspirations homework Hours perday doing TV Hours perday watching Discrimination Been discriminated against discrimination (1-4) Expects National Origin1 Haitian Filipino Vietnamese and Laotian Cambodian variance Explained -.018 .041 -.053 .168 -.107 -.078 .088 -.081 .021 .006 .011 .018 .011 .023 .024 .023 -.049 .051 -.041 .206 -.078 -.050 .060

Sig.

NS NS b

-.018 .076 .083 -.101 -.034 -.016 .010 .121 .101 .112 .074 .162 .124

.009 .029 .021 .011 .011 .007 .005 .018 .009 .048 .026 .035 .040

-.031 .044 .060 -.148 -.045 -.034 .028 .097 .167 .032 .045 .069 .048

NS c b

NSNotSignificant Statistical significance: ap<.0001; bp<.01; cp<.05; ornational [Noother ethnic identities Chicano, Black) (American, Hyphenated-American, Hispanic, origin groups self-reported in had effects these statistically equations. significant

1995; Ogbu, 1991). That is, immigrant parents tend to define the situation in instrumental terms (extolling the virtues of hard work and good grades), in whereas their children tend to seek to fit in socially and to experience within an ethnic terms the of disparagement minority impact expressive status. None of the different ethnic self-identity types, however, had statistically conflict. associations with Only a handful of nation? significant parent-child alities were significantly related to such conflicts with parents:the Haitians, the Filipinos, and the Indochinese and Cambodians, groups (Vietnamese, The degree of parent-child conflict was shown earlier (in the Laotians).

788

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bivariate

results by nationality) to be more intense among those particular national-origin groups; that remains the case in the multivariate analysis for a variety of explanatory even after controlling factors. It is worth results also showed that the Vietnamese that multivariate and repeating were the nationalities with associated lower only Filipinos significantly even with parent-child conflict controlled, that self-esteem, suggesting be for both adaptation processes may psychosocial particularly problematic parents and children in those ethnic groups. of issues around that Mary Antin the adolescents' in turn affect the their social iden?

In any event, these data only begin to suggest a range and conflict - the "friction" which tension, derogation refers to at the outset of this article - are produced in with their immigrant relationship parents, conflicts which self-esteem and psychological children's and well-being, tities.

CONCLUSION This article has touched on multiple aspects of the psychosocial adaptation of children of the new waves of immigration to the United States, focusing on the formation of ethnic identities during adolescence. Among the many in the preceding results presented empirical analysis, certain findings are in patterns of ethnic especially noteworthy. The data show major differences self-identification children of from Asia, Latin among teenage immigrants America and the Caribbean - both between and within groups from diverse national origins - growing up in two distinct corners of the United States. Instead of a uniform assimilative or segmented path, we found multiple Over one-quarter of the youths paths to identity formation and resolution. (27%) identified by national origin; another 40 percent chose a hyphen? ated-American (11%) identified as unhyphenated identity; about one-tenth Americans and two-tenths (21%) selected racial or panethnic identity labels. self-identified with their own Thus, two-thirds of the respondents ethnically the remaining or their parents' one-third immigrant origins; reported or dissimilative either assimilative identities that are not connected to those origins but to their American present. Several major patterns emerged from multivariate analyses of a wide range of factors that were theoretically to and of other expected shape the process of ethnic self-identification, such of as self-esteem and aspects psychosocial adaptation depression. is a gendered First, ethnic self-identification process. Among the adoles? cents in the sample, gender was a significant of virtually every predictor of ethnic that of gender and issues chosen, self-identity type suggesting ethnic identity may be connected. Girls were much more likely to choose additive or hyphenated identities, as well as a Hispanic panethnic self-label; national identity (whether boys were more likely to choose an unhyphenated

The Crucible

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American

or national those of Mexican descent to origin), and among as In was a main determinant Chicano. of psycho? addition, gender identify outcomes, with girls being much more likely than boys to logical well-being lower and a greater level of parentself-esteem, report higher depression, child conflict. drawn from classic assimilation Second, partly in line with expectations assimi? theory, acculturation strongly affects the process of identificational lation. Being born in the United States (second generation status) greatly increases the propensity for an assimilative as does natural? self-definition, for and fluent use of English with ized U.S. citizenship, and a preference close friends. Conversely, and not a (1.5 generation) being foreign-born U.S. citizen, as well as a preference for and fluency in the parental native are associated with an ancestral or national-origin language, identity. The of the effects of acculturative on the strength and significance processes as a hyphenated-American odds of self-identifying lie between those two poles. In general, the hyphenated identity emerges here less as a qualita? different mode of ethnic self-definition than as as a bridge or middle tively the identificational between an American national position along spectrum identity and that of origin.7 Still, whereas as a rule parental nationality tends to wash out in our models as a predictor of the children's to propensity or by national origin, parental nationality has identify either as American identity. Children of all very strong effects on the choice of a hyphenated to do so, whereas most of nationalities are much more Asian-origin likely those coming from Latin America and the Caribbean are less likely to add the hyphen. of discrimination affect the way children define their Third, perceptions ethnic identities. Those who have experienced being discriminated against are less likely to identify as American; those who perceive that people will discriminate against them no matter the level ofeducation they may achieve are more likely to remain loyal to a national-origin identity. Such experi? - on of and on exclusion racial-ethnic ences/perceptions rejection grounds ascribed rather than achieved statuses - undercut the prospect of identifi? cational assimilation into the mainstream. with They are also associated conflict. higher levels of depressive symptoms and greater parent-child of dissimilative racial or panethnic self-iden? Fourth, the determination tities follows a different logic, having relatively little to do with acculturative as such. Location and nationality matter more here. Youths in processes inner city schools where most students are racial-ethnic are more minorities in to define those themselves terms of Black identities, likely particularly and less likely to identify ancestrally and Chicano, national by origin. Precisely the opposite effect is seen for those attending upper-middle-class 7Harold J. Abramson puts it this way:"The hyphenate synthesizes a larger loyalty to America with a historic loyalty to the ethnic past" (1981:156).

790

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theoretical private schools. The results support a segmented-assimilation labels youth chose the panethnic Virtually no Asian-origin perspective. A Black or Black American racial identity was Asian or Asian American. chosen by only 10 percent of the youth from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds, but its use increases among the U.S. born. A Hispanic identity was picked countries, but it declines by over 20 percent of those from Spanish-speaking in San Diego are of the U.S. Children born. immigrants rapidly among much more likely to identify in racial or panethnic minority terms. The of immigrants, its extraordinarily Miami area, despite high proportion of assimilative to the development main? turns out to be more conducive an ironic result that may be in part connected stream identities, to race (the of phenotypically white youth in the sample overwhelming proportion reside in Miami) and to the effects of American racial categories and racism on perceived ethnic identity options. is shaped by the family context. Fifth, children's psychosocial adaptation of identificational assimilation is moderated The likelihood by parental social status, and parent-child The chil? ethnic socialization, relationships. dren's ethnic self-identities of their strongly tend to mirror the perceptions own if they their ethnic as self-identities, mother's) parents' (and especially in an ethnic looking-glass. Children who feel embarrassed were reflections more likely to identify assimilatively as by their parents are significantly whereas higher-status Americans, professional parents are unhyphenated their children to identify by their national origin. more likely to influence conflict emerged as the strongest determinant Parent-child of poorer selfaffect. esteem and depressive American" takes different forms, has different meanings, and "Becoming is reached by different paths. But the process is one in which all children of are engaged - defining an identity for themselves, i.e., a mean? immigrants ingful place in the society of which they are its newest members. To be sure, the process is complex, conflictual and stressful, and profoundly affects the consciousness of immigrant parents and children alike. The process is also shaped within a much larger historical context of which the participants may be no more conscious than fish are of water, and in an American crucible that since the origins of the nation. In the final has been shaping identities is crucible it the without that shapes the crucible within. analysis,

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