Contemporary Ethnic Families in the United States Characteristics, Variations, and Dynamics

Designed to increase readers' awareness of healthful family processes across and within ethnic households, this book features 45 accessible, non-technical articles on 9 substantive family-related issues. Organized by topics rather than ethnic groups, it features selections that examine the intersections of social class, age, sexual orientation, gender differences, and intragroup variations. It provides selections that are representative of the increasing "heterogeneity of diversity" of contemporary ethnic families in the U.S.Features representative articles on five ethnic groups--African-Americans (including African and Caribbean families); Latinos (including Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Puerto Rican-Americans); Asian-Americans (including Korean-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Filipino-Americans, Pacific Islanders, Vietnamese-Americans, Cambodian-Americans, Indian Americans, and Laotian-Americans); American Indians; and Middle Eastern Americans (including Arab-Americans and Muslim families). Explores the ethnic families' characteristics, variations, and dynamics in terms of socialization, gender roles, marriage and communication, parenting, work and discrimination, social class, violence and other family crises, separation and divorce, and family caregiving and aging.For professionals in healthcare and practitioners who work with ethnic families.

PrefaceThe proportion of ethnic minority families in the United States is growing at a breathtaking pace. By 2025, according to Census Bureau projections, 62 percent of the U.S. population will be white, down from 76 percent in 1990 and 86 percent in 1950 (see Reading 1). The increasing cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity of U.S. families is generating much interest among scholars, journalists, politicians, and students. During the mid-1980s, "Racial and Ethnic Relations" courses often were canceled because of low enrollments, but a decade later, classes were overflowing. During end-of-semester course evaluations, moreover, a number of students offered (unsolicited) comments like "I never realized I stereotyped until I took this course" or "This course should be required forallUniversity of Baltimore students because we don't know very much about our classmates and coworkers."Such remarks were gratifying, of course, but despite many students' enthusiastic reactions, I felt frustrated when choosing textbooks--for several reasons. First, although there are several excellent race and ethnic textbooks on the market, they typically offer scope rather than depth because it's nearly impossible to provide both.Second, when I searched for edited volumes that would provide the depth I wanted, I discovered several shortcomings. The books typically devoted much space to European American families, but I wanted more coverage of ethnic minority families. The books tended to focus on low-socioeconomic households--especially those in black and Latino communities--but I was interested in increasing students' awareness of healthful family processes across and within ethnic households, whether poor, middle-class, or affluent. And all of the anthologies failed to recognize what I call the "heterogeneity of diversity" of U.S. families. For example, in 1990 Chinese, Filipinos, and Japanese ranked as the largest Asian American groups, but Southeast Asians, Indians, Koreans, and Pakistanis have been registering much faster growth. Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans have been the dominant groups among Latinos, but their growth rate, too, is being outpaced by immigration from Central and South American countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Brazil. Similarly, we rarely read or hear about the influx of Middle Eastern or Caribbean families. Ignoring many of the relatively small ethnic groups gives a skewed picture of diversity and increases the invisibility of significant numbers of U.S. households.Third, many of the edited volumes focus on demographic characteristics, migration patterns, and the history of the immigrants' country of origin. I wanted students to learn more aboutfamiliesandfamily processes--how ethnic families interact on a daily basis, cope with difficulties, and adjust to a new environment. Selections that emphasize historical backgrounds do not capture recent intergenerational changes.Fourth, I found that many of the anthologies contained articles based on 1970s and 1980s data. Although there is nothing wrong with using older selections when necessary, ethnic families changed considerably--demographically and culturally--during the 1990s. Purpose of the BookContemporary Ethnic Families in the United Stateswill broaden students' awareness of the increasing heterogeneity of diversity in U.S. society. This anthology provides representative articles about African Americans; families with Latino roots (including Mexican Americans, Central Americans, and Latin Americans); Caribbean families; families from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia; and families from the Mideast. I would have liked to include selections about many of the subgroups within each major ethnic group (such as Laotian Americans for Southeast Asian families) and for each of the topics I cover. But substantive articles are