Second-generation Group Research Articles

Migration, social mobility and common mental disorders: critical review of the literature and meta-analysis

Objective. Changes in socio-economic position in people who migrate may have adverse associations with mental health. The main objective of this review was to assess the association of social mobility with common mental disorders in migrant and second-generation groups, to inform future research. Design. Systematic review and meta-analysis of English-language studies assessing the association of social mobility in migrant or second-generation groups with common mental disorders. Approaches to operationalise ‘social mobility’ were reviewed. Results. Twelve studies (n=18,548) met criteria for retrieval. Very few included second-generation groups, and most studies were cross-sectional in design. Approaches to operationalise ‘social mobility’ varied between studies. Downward intragenerational social mobility was associated with migration in the majority of studies. Random effects meta-analysis (n=5179) suggested that migrants to higher income countries who experienced downward mobility or underemployment were more likely to screen positive for common mental disorders, relative to migrants who were upwardly mobile or experienced no changes to socio-economic position. Conclusions on second-generation groups were limited by the lack of research highlighted for these groups. Downward intragenerational mobility associated with migration may be associated with vulnerability to common mental disorders in some migrant groups. Conclusion. Given the increasing scale of global migration, further research is needed to clarify how changes to socio-economic position associated with international migration may impact on the mental health of migrants, and in their children.

The METEOR study

The objective of this crosssectional study was to estimate the prevalence of metabolic disorders and hypertension in patients with schizophrenia and to compare prevalence between patients treated with first-generation (FGA) and second-generation (SGA) antipsychotic drugs. The study included 2270 adults with schizophrenia. Patients were assigned to an FGA or SGA stratum on the basis of current treatment. Data were collected on sociodemographic, lifestyle and clinical variables. Blood pressure, waist and hip circumference, blood glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol were measured. The primary evaluation criterion was the prevalence of a glycaemic disorder. Secondary criteria were the prevalence of dyslipidaemia, obesity, hypertension and metabolic syndrome. A propensity score was used to control imbalance between strata. The prevalence of glycaemic disorders was 31.1% (FGA) and 27.6% (SGA). No between-strata difference in prevalence was observed for glycaemic disorders, dyslipidaemia or metabolic syndrome. The prevalence of hypertension was higher (P=0.033) in the FGA group. The proportion of women (but not men) who were overweight or obese was higher in the SGA group (P=0.035), as was the proportion reporting weight gain of more than 5 kg (P<0.001). In an exploratory unadjusted post-hoc analysis, significantly higher frequencies of dysglycaemia (28.5 vs. 22.0%; P=0.006), low HDL cholesterol (35.3 vs. 29.7%; P=0.023) and metabolic syndrome (36.7 vs. 30.7%; P=0.021) were observed in patients taking SGAs considered to carry high metabolic risk compared with those taking low-risk agents. In conclusion, metabolic disorders are prevalent in patients with schizophrenia treated with antipsychotics and are under-diagnosed and under-treated.

“To See Ourselves as Others See Us”: On the Implications of Reflected Appraisals for Ethnic Identity and Discrimination

This study examined how immigrants’ feelings of ethnic identity align with their perceptions of how other people see them, and how these reflected appraisals from others contribute to immigrants’ experience of discrimination. First-generation ( N = 94) and second-generation ( N = 140) Chinese Canadians completed a questionnaire which assessed their ethnic identity and the reflected appraisals of members from Chinese and Anglo Canadian communities across four situational domains (family, friends, university, community). The results showed that both generations generally felt that they were regarded by both Chinese and Anglo Canadians as more Chinese than they felt themselves but indicated few discrepancies between self- and reflected appraisals of Canadian identity. Reflected appraisals were associated with the experience of personal discrimination only in the second-generation group. The discussion emphasizes the importance of a situational perspective on ethnic identity and underscores important differences between generational groups in their experience of identity and discrimination.

Segmented assimilation revisited: types of acculturation and socioeconomic mobility in young adulthood

This article examines the debate between key theories of immigrant assimilation by exploring the effect of acculturation types – dissonant, consonant and selective – on socioeconomic outcomes in young adulthood. Drawing on survey data from the Immigrant Second Generation in Metropolitan New York, we show that, while all three types occur, dissonant acculturation is the exception, not the norm, among second-generation young adults. Our results also suggest that neither the type of acculturation nor the level of ethnic embeddedness can account for the variation in mobility patterns both across and within second-generation groups. These findings lead us to question assumptions about the protective effect of selective acculturation and the negative effect of dissonant acculturation.

Shifting Negotiations of Identity in a Dominican American Community

This article examines shifting negotiations of language, identity, and acculturation among US-raised Dominicans in a changing community in Providence, RI. It documents multiple, situational claims of identity among high-school students and situational discrepancies between the ways US-raised Dominicans see themselves and the black–white racial terms in which others sometimes see them. Narrative and interview data from second-generation adults suggest that issues of ethnic/racial identity shift for many individuals as they become re-immersed in Spanish-speaking contexts as adults. The situational and shifting nature of these identity negotiations suggests limitations of the dominant theories of immigrant acculturation in the US – assimilation and segmented assimilation – for understanding trajectories of acculturation among this second-generation group.

Justice Matters: Legacies of the Holocaust and World War II (review)

Reviewed by: Justice Matters: Legacies of the Holocaust and World War II Stephen C. Feinstein Justice Matters: Legacies of the Holocaust and World War II, by Mona Sue Weissmark. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. 191 pp. $28.00 Weissmark is a psychologist and Director of the Institute for Social Justice at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Her study deals with the results of group encounters between children of Holocaust survivors and children of Nazi perpetrators she supervised over a ten-year period. The volume carries a slightly deceptive title, as the word justice is used in the context of post-Holocaust dialogue between these second generation groups. In this respect, justice means a process for dialogue and coming to terms with the past, which has resulted in many misconceptions by each side about the other, rather than issues connected with financial restitution. The author's interest in the subject came from her own background as a child of Holocaust survivors, plus some of the disquieting conclusions drawn by Hannah Arendt from the trial of Adolf Eichmann about "the banality of evil" and the accusations of Jewish complicity through the Jewish councils (Judenräte). Weissmark also uses Stanley Milgram's well-known electrical shock experiment that focused on obedience to authority as a source for understanding the relationship between German antisemitism and the issue [End Page 174] of how obedience played a role in the extermination of the Jews. Weissmark confesses that conclusions by both Arendt and Milgram established taboos about investigating attitudes among the second generations: Jewish actions that helped the Nazis might reduce the uniqueness of the Holocaust and implicate Jews in their own destruction, while Milgram's experiment might suggest that following orders rather than hatred was the dominant motive for German actions. All of this might be a rehashing of well-known historical issues if the author had not asked the question of how the above issues were passed to subsequent generations on both sides. In this book, the bulk of the interesting and new material comes directly from clinical sessions between the two second-generation groups that met together. It is in this context that the issue of justice becomes intergenerational. The key answer which the author as psychologist seems to search for is how both children of survivors and children of Nazis have perceived both injustice and justice in their parents' experiences. The study ultimately was based on interviewing eleven children of Holocaust survivors and eleven children of Nazi perpetrators. The survey and interview project seems to have revealed some interesting conclusions. First was "ethnic identification," meaning that both sides shared an identity that was rooted in the war experiences of the parents. Secondly, "double victimization" was identified as children of each victim group repeated the experiences of their parents as essential elements in their lives. The third issue was "feelings of indignation" that each side felt relating to the nature of the crime and justice or the nature of the guilt inflicted on the German side in the aftermath of the war. Weissmark indicates that institutionalization of resentment in the post-war era through reparations seems to have satisfied neither side. Survivors have felt short-changed and disturbed because of the massive alterations and trauma in their lives, while Germans had to deal with issues of collective guilt. The author notes that "[t]he program failed to remedy feelings of hatred and resentment; in fact, it perpetuated such feelings" (p. 69). It is the conclusion about the failure of immediate post-war justice programs that led the author to conclude that redressing the injustices can only be solved through dialogue. The dialogue she refers to involves the next generation, to whom the guilt and sense of indignity was transferred. So, process here is perhaps as important as results, in that discussion in Weissmark's group led to each side facing the other, often for the first time, in an open setting. The result was complex, but one conclusion was that both groups felt themselves as victims of the past and that attitudes handed down from parents about this past were impediments to independent thinking about the subject. Weissmark notes in this regards, for example...

Will the new second generation experience ‘downward assimilation’? Segmented assimilation re-assessed

Research on the “new second generation” in the United States has been deeply influenced by the hypothesis of “segmented assimilation”, which contends that the children of immigrants are at risk of downward mobility into a “new rainbow underclass”. This article seeks to assess that assertion, focusing on the experience of Mexicans, the overwhelmingly largest of today’s second-generation groups, and a population of predominantly working- or lower-class origins. The empirical component of this article rests on analysis of a combined sample of the 1996–2001 Current Population Survey.

The New Second Generation in the United States

Immigration to the United States accelerated in the late 1960s. Since many migrants are young people who form families shortly after arrival, there is now a large and rapidly growing second generation - many of them now young adults who recently completed school and started their careers. There is much speculation about whether this second generation will assimilate into the middle class rapidly or form a new urban underclass. The last census to ask parental birthplace questions was 1970, so an absence of data precluded testing hypotheses about the social and economic progress of the new second generation. In 1994, the Census Bureau returned an inquiry about parental birthplace to the Current Population Survey so there is now an annual national sample of about 16,000 second-generation Americans. Data from the 1998 and 2000 surveys were pooled and analyzed. This investigation demonstrates that these comprehensive new data provide valuable descriptive information about today's second generation and permit the cautious testing of hypotheses concerning social and economic assimilation. They reveal a great diversity among the second generation depending upon country of origin but, in most comparisons, today's second generation exceed their first-generation parents in educational attainment, occupational achievement and economic status. In many comparisons, second-generation groups have educational attainments exceeding those of third- and higher-generation whites and African Americans. These data refute the hypothesis that today's second generation will languish in poverty. Nevertheless, intergenerational progress was less for persons of Puerto Rican and Mexican heritage than for those of Asian, European or South American heritage.

Toward A Population History Of The Second Generation: Birth Cohorts Of Southern-, Central- And Eastern- European Origins, 1871-1970

Past-present comparisons of second-generation progress are often plagued by vague references to the baseline, the past. This essay seeks to contribute some specificity to the understanding of second generations past for the sake of comparison and as a contribution to historical understanding in its own right. First, it defines the older second-generation groups that make for theoretically meaningful comparisons. It next determines when these relevant second-generation members grew up and the magnitude of each ethnic birth cohort. Finally, the essay calls attention to important shifts in the social composition of second-generation cohorts that have not been studied systematically before (when indeed noticed at all). Specifically, over time, the proportion of immigrant parents who arrived as children, arrived after the mass migration, or married a native-born American varies immensely. Such compositional shifts should interest those who study contemporary as well as past immigration, since these shifts will appear in some fashion in any immigration. The study also analyses Stanley Lieberson's work with ethnic cohorts in A Piece of the Pie, and confirms his fundamental conclusion.

Heritability of intracerebral hemorrhagic lesions and cerebral aneurysms in the rat.

Under certain conditions, the Brown Norway (BN) rat is susceptible to intracerebral hemorrhagic vascular (ICV) lesions within the cerebral cortex, whereas the Long-Evans (LE) rat is prone to develop aneurysms in the circle of Willis. The incidence of these 2 pathological phenotypes was studied in progeny of different BNXLE crosses to determine their heritability in these new rat models. In addition, a possible link between ICV lesion occurrence and either the susceptibility to spontaneous rupture of the arterial internal elastic lamina (IEL) or basal plasma angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity was also studied in back-cross (BC) F1XBN rats, the only second-generation group with a high incidence of ICV lesions. To induce cerebrovascular lesions, rats were submitted to experimental hypertension associated with ligation of 1 carotid artery. After death, the brain was examined for cerebral lesions. Numbers of arterial IEL ruptures were determined microscopically with the use of en face preparations. Plasma ACE activity was determined before the induction of hypertension. In general, groups that developed ICV lesions presented a low incidence of aneurysms. ICV lesion incidence was similar in F1 hybrids and BC(F1XBN) and greatly decreased in F2 and BC(F1XLE) rats compared with BN rats. No cerebral aneurysms developed in F1 rats. Aneurysmal incidence was 24% (20% ruptured) in LE, 42% (59% ruptured) in F2, and 50% (75% ruptured) in BC(F1XLE) rats. In BC(F1XBN) rats, neither the incidence of IEL rupture nor the plasma ACE activity was higher in the rats with ICV lesions. However, the mean blood pressure level was higher in these rats, and peak blood pressure was higher in rats with the most severe grades of ICV lesions. These data suggest a polygenic and dominant mode of inheritance of ICV pathology. The formation of aneurysms in the circle of Willis tended to be favored, and their rupture was clearly increased by the presence of BN rat alleles within the LE rat genome. These data may provide the basis for future studies to determine, in new rat models, which genes are involved in these pathologies.

Perception of Self among First- and Second-Generation Entrepreneurs

A few typologis of entrepreneurs have been proposed. One such typology by Venkatapathy (1983b) classified enrrepreneurs into first and second generations. The former refers to individuals who initiate their own ventures for which there was no precedence and the latter to individuals who adopt or take over ventures already established by a member of their family or relatives. It was hypothesized that the two groups of entrepreneurs would differ in perceptions of self on an affective dimension. Twentyfive concepts denoting an affective dimension of self were to be sorted using Q-methodology on an 11-point rating scale. Analysis showed that the 57 first-generation enrrepreneucs were significantly (p 6 .05) less impulsive, insecure, shy, and gloomy and also less sensitive, more problematic, artistic and moody than the 44 second-generation entrepreneurs. The two groups did not differ on dieerful, stable, informal, innocuous, self-centered, brave, poetic, excitable, subservient, nervous, motionless ocean, sober, social, complex, cruel, selfconscious and sportive. The first-generation group were older, highly educated, opting to promote selfemployment, had healthy childhood experiences, had more friends, showed social involvement and awareness, felt training was more essential than education and their filial position most often was first relative to the second-generation group (Venkatapathy, 1983a). It was concluded that the first- and second-generation entrepreneurs differed in their perceptions of self.

Production of Milk and Milk Constituents by Brown Swiss, Holsteins, and Their Crossbreds1,2

Least squares procedures were used to evaluate yields by crossbred and back-cross Brown Swiss and Holstein in relation to purebred contemporaries many of which were paternal or maternal half-sisters. Foundation females were taken at random from groups of females in the University herd. Bulls, 16 Brown Swiss and 13 Holstein selected at random from bulls in 13 artificial insemination studs, sired the crossbreds and purebreds. From foundation cows, were 34 Holsteins, 26 Brown Swiss, and 13 each of the Holstein x Swiss (breed of bull first, breed of cow last.) and Swiss x Holstein crosses that completed first lactations. First-generation purebreds were bred for purebreds and crossbreds, and crossbreds were bred for backcrosses. Both first-generation crossbred groups had fewer days open than purebreds. Numbers in second-generation groups with lactation records varied from 9 to 13. Crossbreds in each generation averaged higher than the purebreds for yields of milk, milk fat, 4% fat-corrected milk, solids-not-fat, and protein. Interaction (sire-dam) constants were not significant; neither was heterosis for production traits. For days open these estimates ranged from 14 to 31%.

Class or Ethnic Solidarity: The Japanese American Company Union

THE CONFLICTS which beset the maturing second-generation Japanese Americans were even more intense than those which so often have faced second-generation groups in the United States. The Nisei had inherited from ther parents a remarkable drive to succeed in the face of hardships, but they had also learned the American definition of success, by which standard the accommodation made by their parents could not be considered satisfactory. Suspicious and hostile white Americans had years before put the ambitious Japanese immigrants in their place by means legal and extralegal. The coming of age of the new generation can be dated, for the 1930's saw the proportion of adult Japanese males born in the United States increase from one in fifteen to one in three. Nowhere was the quiet drama of maturation played with deeper feeling or significance than in Los Angeles, the Japanese American metropolis, where-in contrast to the continental United States as a whole-Japanese population increased during the depression decade. By 1940, the 36,866 Japanese in the county, alien and native-born, constituted 29 percent of the national total.' To date, writings on the Japanese Americans have tended to con-

Suburbs and Ethnic Residential Patterns

Residential distributions of foreign-born and second-generation groups in the suburbs of several large metropolitan areas are compared with their compatriots' segregation patterns within the central cities of these metropolises. Differences between specific first- and second-generation groups in the magnitude of their dispersion in suburbs are associated with variations in segregation between the same nationalities residing in the central cities. The changes in ethnic distributions between suburbs during a twenty-year period are similar to those occuring within the central cities for comparable populations. These results suggest that differences in the population composition of suburbs and central cities may obscure the existence of similar behavioral patterns for comparable groups in the two parts of a metropolis.