 |
|
Study: Children of Immigrants Form Ethnic Identity at Early Age
September 25, 2007A study of more than 400 children of first-generation immigrants is among the first longitudinal studies to demonstrate that one's ethnic identity forms prior to adolescence. Furthermore, the three-year study found that a child's positive sense of ethnic identity is associated with the desire to socialize with children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Cynthia Garcia Coll, professor of education, and Amy Marks, both affiliated with Brown University's Center for the Study of Human Development, conducted the research with colleagues from Howard University and University of Illinois-Chicago. Their findings are published in The International Journal of Behavioral Development.
The sample included two groups of children in first and fourth grades from first-generation Cambodian, Dominican and Portuguese families in Providence and East Providence, R.I. Researchers assessed the children's emerging ethnic identities through a label selection procedure that involved the children selecting labels that described themselves. Categories included labels of nationality (i.e., Portuguese, Dominican); hyphenated (i.e., Portuguese-American); panethnic (i.e., Latino, Asian); racial (white or black); and ethno-linguistic (i.e., Spanish, English, Khmer). Each child was also asked a series of questions about their degree of ethnic pride, the centrality of their ethnic identity, and which label makes them the happiest.
Results demonstrate that second-generation children in three very different ethnic groups showed a robust awareness of their ethnic heritage and identified with being both part of their parents' culture of origin, as well as being American.
Other findings include:
* Children in all three groups reported similar levels of ethnic identity "centrality," and all reported positive feelings of pride regarding being a member of their ethnic group.
* Overall, older children demonstrated a greater amount of ethnic identification and exploration, indicated by a greater amount of label selection and higher degree of ethnic pride.
* Children displayed a very high degree of accuracy in selecting labels; fewer than 3 percent of labels selected by children were incorrect.
"This research indicates these children are actively constructing this part of their identities, learning, and choosing from the environments they are part of," said Garcia Coll, the Charles Pitts Robinson and John Palmer Barstow Professor of Education, Psychology and Pediatrics at Brown. "As adults we can't adopt a color-blind posture, but should support them in these important psychological tasks."
During years two and three of the study, children were asked about their preferences for socializing with children of their own and other ethnicities and racial groups. Displaying sets of photographs of white, black, Asian, and Latino groups of children, interviewers asked how comfortable the child was playing with and socializing with each group. Researchers measured each child's social preference for the "ingroup" and a social preference for the "outgroup."
Researchers found:
* For all three ethnic groups, "ingroup" social preference was positively correlated with "outgroup" social preference, demonstrating the positive connection between these two social processes during middle childhood. In other words, explained Garcia Coll, having a strong ethnic identity is not associated with prejudices against other groups, as some past scholars have feared.
* For all children, older age was associated with greater preferences to play with children of other ethnic groups.
"What we found at this early age is that children want to play with peers from their own ethnic backgrounds and peers from other backgrounds as well," said Marks, adjunct assistant professor of human development at Brown's Center for the Study of Human Development. "Importantly, the better children feel about their own ethnic identities, the more they want to play with others, regardless of ethnicity."
Marks continued, "This has implications for understanding how to foster children's social skills and friendships in today's increasingly multicultural classroom environments. Today, one in five schoolchildren are from immigrant families, and that proportion is growing. Parents and teachers should support children in forming strong, positive cultural identities while encouraging children's curiosities for interethnic group contact and friendships."
This research was funded the Mittlemann Family Directorship at the Center, the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation.
Brown University
Results demonstrate that second-generation children in three very different ethnic groups showed a robust awareness of their ethnic heritage and identified with being both part of their parents' culture of origin, as well as being American.
Other findings include:
* Children in all three groups reported similar levels of ethnic identity "centrality," and all reported positive feelings of pride regarding being a member of their ethnic group.
* Overall, older children demonstrated a greater amount of ethnic identification and exploration, indicated by a greater amount of label selection and higher degree of ethnic pride.
* Children displayed a very high degree of accuracy in selecting labels; fewer than 3 percent of labels selected by children were incorrect.
"This research indicates these children are actively constructing this part of their identities, learning, and choosing from the environments they are part of," said Garcia Coll, the Charles Pitts Robinson and John Palmer Barstow Professor of Education, Psychology and Pediatrics at Brown. "As adults we can't adopt a color-blind posture, but should support them in these important psychological tasks."
During years two and three of the study, children were asked about their preferences for socializing with children of their own and other ethnicities and racial groups. Displaying sets of photographs of white, black, Asian, and Latino groups of children, interviewers asked how comfortable the child was playing with and socializing with each group. Researchers measured each child's social preference for the "ingroup" and a social preference for the "outgroup."
Researchers found:
* For all three ethnic groups, "ingroup" social preference was positively correlated with "outgroup" social preference, demonstrating the positive connection between these two social processes during middle childhood. In other words, explained Garcia Coll, having a strong ethnic identity is not associated with prejudices against other groups, as some past scholars have feared.
* For all children, older age was associated with greater preferences to play with children of other ethnic groups.
"What we found at this early age is that children want to play with peers from their own ethnic backgrounds and peers from other backgrounds as well," said Marks, adjunct assistant professor of human development at Brown's Center for the Study of Human Development. "Importantly, the better children feel about their own ethnic identities, the more they want to play with others, regardless of ethnicity."
Marks continued, "This has implications for understanding how to foster children's social skills and friendships in today's increasingly multicultural classroom environments. Today, one in five schoolchildren are from immigrant families, and that proportion is growing. Parents and teachers should support children in forming strong, positive cultural identities while encouraging children's curiosities for interethnic group contact and friendships."
This research was funded the Mittlemann Family Directorship at the Center, the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation.
Brown University
Land tenure conflict in Kenya turning into strong inter-ethnic territorial claims
Kenya's recent history has been dotted with several intense episodes of land-ownership conflict, starting in the early 1950s with the bloody repression of the Mau Mau movement by the British colonial power.
Racial discrimination has different mental health effects on Asians, study shows
The first national study of Asians living in the United States shows that for some individuals, strong ties to their ethnicity can guard against the negative effects of racism.
Researchers underscore limitations of genetic ancestry tests
Although many people rely on commercially available genetic tests for insights into their ancestry, the tests have significant limitations according to Deborah Bolnick, assistant professor of anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin.
Multiracial youth more likely to engage in violent behavior, substance abuse
Multiracial adolescents in middle school are significantly more likely to engage in such problem behaviors as violence and substance use than single-race young people, according to a new study.
Optimism and misperception a recipe for national confusion about food safety
Americans are confident about their ability to keep the food they eat safe - but a new survey shows they don't trust their neighbors, and they don't really have a good feel for how widespread food-borne illness is.
More Ethnic Identity Current Events and Ethnic Identity News Articles
 | Ethnic Identity in China: The Making of a Muslim Minority Nationality by Dru C. Gladney This case study introduces students to the problems of ethnic diversity in China, a modern nation-state that is normally thought of and taught as culturally monolithic. By introducing students to the wide diversity of identity within one nationality, they are exposed to the ethnic complexities as well as to the larger issue of ethnic pluralism in modern nation-states. Students' perceptions... |
 | Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and Indian Identities around Puget Sound (American Crossroads) by Alexandra Harmon In the Puget Sound region of Washington state, indigenous peoples and their descendants have a long history of interaction with settlers and their descendants. Indians in the Making offers the first comprehensive account of these interactions, from contact with traders of the 1820s to the Indian fishing rights activism of the 1970s. In this thoroughly researched history, Alexandra Harmon also... |
 | Ethnic Identity and Power: Cultural Contexts of Political Action in School and Society (Suny Series, Power, Social Identity, and Education) |
 | Ethnic Identity in Nahua Mesoamerica: The View from Archaeology, Art History, Ethnohistory, and Contemporary Ethnography by Frances F Berdan, John K Chance, Alan R Sandstrom, Barbara Stark, James Taggart, Emily Umberger |
 | Identity Matters: Ethnic and Sectarian Conflict In response to the attacks of September 11, 2001 and war in Afghanistan, the Fulbright New Century Scholars program brought together social scientists from around the world to study sectarian, ethnic, and cultural conflict within and across national borders. As one result of their year of intense discussion, this book examines the roots of collective violence - and the measures taken to avoid it... |
 | Handbook of Language & Ethnic Identity This volume presents a comprehensive introduction to the connection between language and ethnicity. Since the "ethnic revival" of the last twenty years, there has been a substantial and interdisciplinary change in our understanding of the connection between these fundamental aspects of our identity. Joshua Fishman has commissioned over 25 previously unpublished papers on every facet of the... |
 | Inventing Irish America: Generation, Class, and Ethnic Identity in a New England City, 1880-1928 (The Irish in America) by Timothy J. Meagher Generation, Class, and Ethnic Identity in a New England City,... |
 | Ethnic Identity in Tang China (Encounters with Asia) by Marc S. Abramson Ethnic Identity in Tang China is the first work in any language to explore comprehensively the construction of ethnicity during the dynasty that reigned over China for roughly three centuries, from 618 to 907. Often viewed as one of the most cosmopolitan regimes in China's past, the Tang had roots in Inner Asia, and its rulers continued to have complex relationships with a population that... |
 | Language and Identity: National, Ethnic, Religious by John E. Joseph Offering a uniquely broad-based overview of the role of language choice in the construction of national, cultural, and personal identity, this textbook examines a wide range of specific cases from various parts of the world in order to arrive at some general principles concerning the links between language and identity. It will benefit students and researchers in a wide range of fields where... |
 | Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America by Mary C. Waters In this perceptive and revealing study, Mary Waters explores the "reinvention" of ethnicity in the lives of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of European immigrants, asking how their ethnic heritage is lived, maintained, and celebrated. Through in-depth interviews with sixty third and fourth generation white ethnics in suburban California and Pennsylvania, the author... |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |