Ethnic Density Effect Research Articles

The ethnic density effect: results from a national community survey of England and Wales.

Using data from a community survey of 5196 ethnic minority and 2867 white respondents, together with data on local group concentration from the 1991 Census, the hypothesis was tested that ethnic group concentration is associated with lower levels of reported psychiatric symptoms. The hypothesis was broadly confirmed, both for within- and between-group differences. However, the effect was found to be modest in size and in one group, the Pakistani sample, was reversed. The findings are inconsistent with an explanation based on selection or drift. Linguistic factors contributed to, but did not explain the effects. Evidence on victimisation and mutual support suggests that social causation, in the form of reduced exposure to direct prejudice and increased social support, is a likely cause of the effect.

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

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.

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

Focusing on the formation of ethnic self-identities during adolescence, this paper examines the psychosocial adaptation of children of immigrants from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The data are drawn from the CILS survey carried out in the San Diego and Miami metropolitan areas of over 5,000 children of immigrants attending the 8th and 9th 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.