The Crucible Within: Ethnic Identity, Self-Esteem, and Segmented Assimilation among Children of Immigrants

TLDR

The study investigates how adolescents who are children of immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean form ethnic self‑identities and adapt psychosocially. Using a survey of over 5,000 eighth‑ and ninth‑grade children of immigrants in San Diego and Miami, the authors performed multivariate analyses to identify factors influencing ethnic identity paths and psychosocial outcomes. Results reveal segmented ethnic identity trajectories with significant variation across national origins, and show that acculturation, discrimination, school ethnic density, and family context shape psychosocial adaptation.

Abstract

Focusing on the formation of ethnic self-identities during adolescence, this article examines the psychosocial adaptation of children of immigrants from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The data are drawn from a survey carried out in the San Diego and Miami metropolitan areas of over 5,000 children of immigrants attending the eighth and 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 differences in their patterns of ethnic self-identification, both between and within groups from diverse national origins. Instead of a uniform assimilative path, we found segmented paths to identity formation. Detailed social portraits are sketched for each ethnic identity type. Multivariate analyses then explore the determinants of assimilative and dissimilative ethnic self-identities and of other aspects of psychosocial adaptation such as self-esteem, depressive affect, and parent-child conflict, controlling for gender, socioeconomic status, and national origin. The theoretical and practical implications of these results –especially the effects of acculturation, discrimination, location and ethnic density of schools, parental socialization and family context, upon the psychosocial adaptation of children of recent immigrants to the United States – are discussed.