Ethnicity and Educational Attainment in England: An Overview

A synthesis of the literature related to identity processes among American ethnic and racial minority children and adolescents is presented. In general, ethnic and racial identification, preferences, and attitudes have been studied among younger children, while the constructs of ego identity and ethnic identity have been generally studied among adolescents. The literature is unequally distributed across ethnic groups, with more research on African Americans and American Indians, and on Hispanics and Asians. Methodological concerns, such as problems of nonequivalence across groups, are identified in the conduct of research on ethnic and racial minorities. The synthesis concludes with an identification of intervention efforts along with an articulation of conceptual issues salient for promoting and theorizing about identity development processes among ethnic and racial minority children and adolescents.

Improving access and quality for ethnic minority women— panel discussion

Identity is one of the most important human characteristics. It defines how we interact with the world around us and how the world interacts with us. Although in America we prize individualism and personal identity, there is also a strong desire to categorize and group people, such as by race, ethnicity, gender, and social status. Racial classification is based on a social construct, not a biological one. Unfortunately, racial groupings enforce “superior” and “inferior” groups. In the United States, “hypodescent” laws classify multiracial individuals on the basis of the inferior group.1,2 For example, a white mother can have a Black child, but the reverse is impossible.In 1985, the hypodescent law was applied to the case of Jane Doe v. State of Louisiana.3 Susie Phipps, a white woman (the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of an interracial affair), was denied a US passport because of discrepancy in how she identified herself and what was recorded on her birth certificate. She looked and identified herself as white, but her birth certificate stated that she was “colored.”3 Her appeal eventually went to the Supreme Court, where it was dismissed, demonstrating that what is documented in the birth certificate has lifelong social consequences. These laws enforce systemic racism.Racial and ethnic minority groups have poorer health and disease outcomes than their white counterparts in the United States. Racial and ethnic minority infants in the United States are more likely to be born prematurely, have low birth weight, and die in early childhood.4–6 We assume that the demographic data in these reports are accurate. However, how valid is the information regarding racial classification?In this issue of Pediatrics,7 Weikel et al conducted a systematic review to examine the methods used to record infant race and ethnicity, and highlight the inconsistencies.7 The authors queried online databases for articles that addressed methods of collecting demographic data and population trends, limiting their inclusion criteria to studies that compared 2 or more methods of assessing race and ethnicity data of infants in the United States. They identified 12 studies published between 1980 and 2021 documenting significant discrepancies in the race and/or ethnicity assigned to some infants at birth. Linked birth–death certificates had significant risk of misclassification of race and ethnicity that was more substantial among infants of multiracial couples.This analysis calls into question the accuracy of decades of data regarding infant health outcomes. Classifying racial and ethnic minority children as white on their death certificates erroneously inflates white infant mortality figures and reduces the infant mortality figures among racial and ethnic minority populations. The practical implication is that infant mortality rates are worse than we think they are among racial and ethnic minority populations and may be lower than are commonly reported for white infants. This inaccuracy could lead to spending limited resources on groups who are at low risk, instead of focusing those resources toward racial and ethnic minority and marginalized populations.Each state is required to report data, including race and ethnicity, on births and infant deaths to the National Vital Statistics System, which uses the data widely in health reports.8 However, there are no national standards for how this is done, and methods of birth reporting vary by state and county.8,9The authors found nonresolvable differences in how race and ethnicity were defined in the 12 studies they analyzed, including differences in terminology and how multiracial infants were categorized. The collection guidelines for the National Vital Statistics System state that the race and ethnicity of both parents should be recorded; however, the infant is sometimes assigned the race and ethnicity of the birthing parent only.7,10At a systematic level, racial and ethnic minority children are not being accurately counted. The lack of standardization between how states, regions, institutions, and individuals classify and report race and ethnicity at birth leaves a significant gap for bias and inaccuracies. A comprehensive system for collecting these data would need to account for multiracial families, nonbirthing biological parents, surrogacy, and donor-conceived children. The highlighted inaccuracies also lead to a larger call to increase cultural effectiveness and humility among health professionals, both in their care and recording data for minoritized children.The reality is that race and ethnic groupings are based on ever-changing cultural norms. We must all acknowledge that we live in a racialized society. Whether the discordance between birth certificate, death certificate, survey data, and administrative data observed in the studies highlighted in the present review were the result of human errors, or an effect of systemic racism, the epidemiologic consequences are the same. The social reality is that what race or ethnicity parents assigned to their child matters little; it is the way the society views the child that is critical. Perhaps we need a new census question: “How will society see your child?” Unfortunately, this external classification is the most consequential in a racialized society like ours.

Because ethnic minority children are disproportionately exposed to stressful life conditions such as family poverty, diminished community resources, and racial discrimination, minority children as a group are assumed to be at increased risk for mental health problems. This assumption derives apparent support from the numerous social problems that are reported to occur to a greater extent within some minority communities: school dropout, teenage parenthood, alcohol and substance use, juvenile delinquency, and youth violence. In fact, however, very little is known about the mental health status of ethnic and racial minority children in the United States, including why some minority children may be at greater risk than others for poor mental health.

© Oxford University Press 2011. All rights reserved. This chapter discusses changes in the economic performance of ethnic minorities relative to the white native population. It begins by describing the size and geographic distribution of the United Kingdom's minority population. It studies the intergenerational comparison of the different ethnic minority groups in Britain in terms of education, employment, and wages. The chapter also examines the gap in educational attainment between white British-born and ethnic minority pupils.

Prompt diagnosis of pediatric-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is crucial for preventing a complicated disease course; however, it is not well understood how social determinants of health might affect pediatric IBD diagnosis. This study examined differences in diagnosis age, biomarkers of disease severity, and anthropometrics with sociodemographic factors in a pediatric IBD cohort. Pediatric IBD patients (n = 114) and their parents/caregivers were enrolled from the Children's of Alabama Pediatric IBD Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. Primary analyses examined associations of child race and ethnicity, parental income, parental education, single-parent household status, insurance type, and distance to a tertiary pediatric gastroenterology referral center with diagnosis age. Secondary analyses examined differences in biomarker levels, height, and body mass index at the time of diagnosis. Racial and ethnic minority children were diagnosed at an older age compared to Non-Hispanic White children (14.4 ± 0.40 vs. 11.7 ± 0.38 years; p < 0.001), and this trend was robust to adjustment with other sociodemographic variables. Parental attainment of a college education attenuated the link between minority race and ethnicity and the likelihood of older age at diagnosis, while other sociodemographic variables had no moderating effect. Racial and ethnic minority children were 5.7 times more likely to have clinically elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate at diagnosis compared to Non-Hispanic White children (p = .024). These results suggest that child race and ethnicity may exert a primary effect on the age at diagnosis with pediatric-onset IBD. This study highlights the need for further research on racial and ethnic disparities to promote health equity in pediatric-onset IBD.

The recognition that children and adolescents suffer from mental health problems and disabilities is a recent phenomenon, not arising until the late 19th century. Because of the increasing numbers and importance of ethnic minority children and youth to the vitality of the United States, their mental health and disabilities can no longer be overlooked. Mental health is paramount for fostering social integration, unity, and inclusiveness within and between ethnic groups. Thus the significance of changing demographics and the disparity in mental health indicators make this a key issue for the future. Nursing research in this area has been limited, in spite of the fact that mental health problems and disabilities exert a disproportionate negative effect on racial and ethnic minority children (NIMH, 2001a). The purpose of this chapter is to critique the available nursing research on mental health and disabilities in racial and ethnic minority children, including how such research has been conceptualized, conducted, and interpreted.

ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to examine awareness of the three National Cancer Screening Programmes (breast, cervical, bowel) among white and ethnic minority groups in the UK.SettingData were from two surveys in which the screening questions were added: (i) the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Opinions Survey, carried out in September and October 2008; and (ii) the Ethnibus™ survey of the main ethnic minority groups in England, conducted in October and November 2008.MethodsThe ONS sample consisted of 2216 adults selected using stratified probability sampling to obtain a population-representative sample. The Ethnibus™ sample was obtained by quota sampling and included 1500 adults from the six largest ethnic minority groups in England (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Caribbean, African and Chinese). Participants completed questions on awareness of cancer screening programmes as part of the wider Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) in home-based, face-to-face interviews.ResultsAwareness of breast and cervical cancer screening was high in the white ONS participants (89% breast and 84% cervical), lower in the ONS ethnic minority sample (74% for both breast and cervical) and lowest in the Ethnibus™ sample (69% breast and 66% cervical). Ethnic disparities persisted after controlling for age, gender and occupational group. In both groups, knowledge of breast and cervical screening was lower among men and more socioeconomically deprived groups. Awareness of the new bowel cancer screening programme was less than 30% in both white and ethnic minority groups.ConclusionsEthnic disparities in knowledge of breast and cervical cancer screening should be addressed. Strategies to engage ethnic minority and socioeconomically deprived groups in bowel cancer screening should be instigated to avoid the emergence of disparities.

BackgroundStudies from the US have suggested that children who experience racial discrimination have higher rates of depression, anxiety, behavioural disorders, and lower self-esteem. Children are generally more vulnerable to such...

The thesis of this paper is that the social identity formed by many of our ethnic minority children, youth, and families is the consequence of being identified as a member of a negatively defined social group. Ethnicity is conceptualized as having a common origin, or culture, that is handed down from one generation to another. One's ethnic identity is based on a mixture of language, religion, race, and or ancestry (Yinger, 1985). The concept of minority is a sociological term referring to dominance or power relationships. Minority groups are said to have unequal or limited access to power in a society (Mindel, Habenstein, & Wright, 1988). Inequality and limited access become dimensions of social identity as members of ethnic minority groups are singled out, labeled, and treated unequally on the basis of their cultural or physical differences from the dominant group.Van Dijk (1993), focusing on discourse analysis and understanding ethnic and racial inequality in society, has studied the ways majority group members write and talk about minorities in everyday conversations, textbooks, news reports, films, jokes, debates, and in academic and corporate discourse. In his analysis (see van Dijk, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1991), he asked: a) How do members or institutions of dominant white groups describe ethnic or racial minorities?; and b) What role do these descriptions play in the development, strengthening, legitimization, and perpetuation of white group dominance? Discourse analysis contributes to the understanding of what takes place the micro level of social practices, involving the enactment and reproduction of intergroup relations and especially prejudice and ethnic stereotyping (van Dijk, 1993:93).In the everyday discourse of activities, ethnic minority individuals are often reminded of their unequal status in society by textbooks read, news heard, conversations overheard, research findings reported, and a number of other sources of information. To be a member of an ethnic minority group is to engage in battle with the forces of negative social identity.As it now stands, much of our knowledge about ethnic minority families is grounded in theories of structure and function, as described by Kingsbury and Scanzoni (1993). Families and society are interacting systems. Families contribute members to society for the workforce. They socialize children and make them productive members of society. However, when families vary substantially from the realm of the familiar and acceptable norms as they make their contributions to society and interact with other systems, they are seen as systems. Dysfunctional systems have negative social identities.Social science is quick to investigate that which is deviant or dysfunctional and make recommendations that are heavily intertwined with, and gain acceptability from, prevalent cultural stereotypes. Comparative studies of race and ethnicity can be questioned on methodological grounds. According to Ragin and Hein (1993), data collected are often truncated and biased, giving the appearance of scholarship but having little methodological substance. The fundamental utility of this kind of research for ethnic minority groups is highly questionable.According to Marger (1991), since the 1920s, research on American ethnic minority families has focused its attention on relations among majority and ethnic minority groups, using a comparative or cross societal framework. The poor and powerless were often compared with others more fortunate (Billingsley, 1970). It is not very different today. For example, there is profuse interest in at risk conditions of ethnic minority children. Risk factors are identified by a comparative mode of isolating conditions thought to impact the developing child. Social scientists have neglected to consider sufficiently the processes within specific contexts that shape social identity as members of ethnic minority groups. …

5.19 A Literature Review: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD

Socio-cultural factors impact on the extent of suicidal ideation and attempted suicide but the relative importance of these factors among people from different ethnic groups in Britain has not been explored. We examined the prevalence of suicidal ideation, the incidence of attempted suicide, and the extent of service utilization following attempted suicide among representative samples of White, Irish, Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani individuals living in England. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the EMPIRIC study, a cross-sectional survey of 4281 adults aged 16-74 years, living in private households in England. Lifetime suicidal ideation was generally lower in ethnic minority groups but higher among those born in the UK than those who migrated to England as adults. Risk factors for suicidal ideation have much in common across different ethnic groups; current symptoms of mental distress being the most important. White British and Irish respondents were twice as likely to receive medical attention following attempted suicide than those from other ethnic groups. Services need to adapt in order to ensure that people from ethnic minorities receive appropriate psychological and medical care following attempted suicide.

Parent-Child Nativity, Race, Ethnicity, and Common Mental Health Conditions Among United States Children and Adolescents

This article explores the processes involved in the creation and expression of an ethnic identity for minority groups. It uses nationally representative quantitative data from the British Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities to describe the components that make up ethnic identity for ethnic minority people in the UK and to explore how these components are patterned within and between ethnic groups. Five underlying dimensions of ethnic identity were identified using factor analysis: two related to self description, a traditional identity, participating in ‘community’, and being a member of a racialized group. There was considerable similarity, but also some difference, in these dimensions across the ethnic groups included. The article concludes that the structure of ethnic identity is similar across ethnic minority groups in Britain, but that there is some diversity of identity within ethnic groups; perhaps as a consequence of how the factors that structure ethnic identity vary across demographic groups.

Ethnic differences in burn mechanism and severity in a UK paediatric population