Political Participation Among Latinos in the United States: The Effect of Group Identity and Consciousness*

Objective. How do group identity and consciousness affect Latinos' political participation in the United States? Recent studies that examine this relationship generally focus on a single ethnic group, for example, Mexicans, or the panethnic group, Latino/Hispanic, which limits the scope of their results. This study investigates how group identity and consciousness affect the political participation of differently identified Latinos. Methods. Using the unique 2007 Latino National Survey (LNS), a telephone survey of 8,500 Latino respondents, I investigate how group identity and consciousness affect political participation, as measured by electoral and nonelectoral activities. Results. Findings suggest that Latinos who self‐identify as American are more likely to engage in political action; however, a sense of group consciousness among ethnic, panethnic, and racial‐identified Latinos alters this effect. Conclusion. The type of and extent to which Latinos engage in political action is contingent on primary self‐identity and specific aspects of group consciousness.     

Together They Become One: Examining the Predictors of Panethnic Group Consciousness Among Asian Americans and Latinos*

Objective. This article examines panethnic consciousness as it applies to the two fastest‐growing minority groups in the United States: Asian Americans and Latinos. Given the challenges of diversity and immigration faced by these two communities, I examine the individual‐level factors that help strengthen their panethnic group identity. Methods. Drawing from data provided by the 2000 Pilot National Asian American Political Survey and the 1999 National Survey on Latinos, I use ordered probit models to determine the predictors of panethnic consciousness among both Asian Americans and Latinos. Results. The models confirm that for Asian Americans, high income, involvement in Asian‐American politics, being a Democrat, and the role of racial discrimination encourage panethnic consciousness. For Latinos, the important factors are higher levels of education, gender, being foreign born, involvement in Latino politics, and perceptions of discrimination. Conclusions. The findings here stress the importance of social contextual factors such as racial discrimination on the formation of panethnic identity.     

Exploring African American and Latino Populations Perceptions of Parenting Education Programs: A Qualitative Assessment of Enablers and Barriers

Abstract

Parenting education programs aim to enhance the quality of parenting. Preferences vary between African American and Latino parents, but the context is not well known, and the ethnic/racial differences may have implications for parenting education programs. Focus groups were conducted with seven African American and eight Latino parents, and semi-structured interviews with eight key informants. This qualitative assessment provided information to identify barriers and enablers to participation in parenting education programs. Enablers included parental interest in learning about the developmental stages of their children, the convenience of locations and times, and incentives. Minority parents desired to obtain adequate parenting education. The scarcity of culturally sensitive programs, transportation, affordability, and childcare were significant barriers. There were both significant similarities and differences between the two parent groups. From the perspectives of African American, Latino parents and key informants, a range of resources are necessary to enable the participation and the delivery of high-quality parenting education. The findings from our research will help address the unmet parenting education needs of African American and Latino parents. Future research should work to develop a tailored and culturally sensitive parenting education programs to reduce the divergence between parents and service providers.     

Options: Racial/Ethnic Identification of Children of Intermarried Couples*

Objective. Whites of various European ethnic backgrounds usually have weak ethnic attachment and have options to identify their ethnic identity ( Waters, 1990 ). What about children born to interracially married couples? Methods. I use 1990 Census data—the last census in which only one race could be chosen—to examine how African American‐white, Latino‐white, Asian American‐white, and American Indian‐white couples identify their children's race/ethnicity. Results. Children of African American‐white couples are least likely to be identified as white, while children of Asian American‐white couples are most likely to be identified as white. Intermarried couples in which the minority spouse is male, native born, or has no white ancestry are more likely to identify their children as minorities than are those in which the minority spouse is female, foreign born, or has part white ancestry. In addition, neighborhood minority concentration increases the likelihood that biracial children are identified as minorities. Conclusion. This study shows that choices of racial and ethnic identification of multiracial children are not as optional as for whites of various European ethnic backgrounds. They are influenced by race/ethnicity of the minority parent, intermarried couples' characteristics, and neighborhood compositions.     

Asian‐Pacific‐American Partisanship: Dynamics of Partisan and Nonpartisan Identities*

Objectives. This article seeks to understand the development of partisanship among Asian Americans since a significant portion do not choose either major party affiliation, but select an independent or a truly nonpartisan status. With a rapidly growing Asian‐American population, examining its pattern for both partisan and nonpartisan identification has been ignored. This research took a developmental process in which acquisition of any partisan affiliation/identification is a critical juncture for Asian‐American political incorporation. Therefore, considering contributing factors that affect the acquisition of any partisan affiliation as a precursor to specific Asian‐American partisan affiliation/behaviors is our direction. Methods. Using a logistical regression model and data from the Pilot National Asian American Political Survey, a category of variables, including sociodemographic, Asian‐American subgroup status, U.S. political orientations and attitudes, and experiences with U.S. society, are used to understand a partisan and nonpartisan affiliation. Results. This study reveals that aspects of socioeconomic status, political attitudes, and immigrant experiences are important, in varying degrees (especially Asian subgroup status) to understand partisan acquisition for Asian Americans. More so, Asian‐American subgroups, persons with lower educational and income levels, and participants in the labor force are less likely to assume a partisan affiliation. Levels of interest in U.S. politics and length of time in the United States do contribute to a partisan affiliation. Conclusions. Viewing partisan affiliation as a developmental process is an important research avenue to approach the Asian‐American community. The inclusion of not only sociodemographic variables, but experiences and evaluation of the U.S. political system, as well as recognizing the political “culture” of Asian‐American subgroups, provides a more complete understanding of the partisan acquisition process.     

Motivating Participation: The Symbolic Effects of Latino Representation on Parent School Involvement*

Objective. Decades of research suggest that parental involvement is vital for positive student academic achievement and thus one often‐proposed solution to alleviate the poor educational outcomes of minority students is to increase their parents' participation in school. Building on a psychological motivation argument, I investigate how the symbolic effects of minority representation impact minority parent involvement. Method. I test my hypotheses with original survey data from 324 Latino parents in Chicago. Results. My analysis suggests that, as hypothesized in the symbolic representation literature, Latinos in positions of power within schools send important heuristic cues to Latino parents that change their orientations to participation and ultimately manifest as increased school involvement. Conclusions. These results support education policies that attempt to increase the minority presence in schools at the administrative and governance levels, and highlight the need for greater enforcement of current diversity requirements under NCLB.     

School context influences the ethnic identity development of immigrant children in middle childhood

The present paper describes a study investigating the ethnic identity development of Latino immigrant children (n = 155) in middle childhood (ages 8–11) in a predominantly White community. The study examined how ethnic identity was related to children's school context. School context was operationalized at the structural level, as the ethnic composition of the teachers and peers, as well as the schools' implicit messages about their valuing of multiculturalism; and the proximal interpersonal level, as children's perceptions of peer discrimination and teacher fairness. Results indicated that both the structural and proximal context predicted children's ethnic label choices, the importance placed on their ethnic identity, the positivity of their ethnic identity, and their American identity.     

英雄伦理与抗争行动的持续性——以鲁西农民抗争积极分子为例

在中国乡村抗争研究中,农民抗争的动机经常被理解为一种“受损逻辑”。虽然受损逻辑能够部分解释抗争行动的发起,但却不能解释在利益补偿、伦理关系修复的情况下,抗争为何会继续进行。本文在对鲁西农民抗争积极分子进行研究的基础上指出,推动抗争积极分子持续抗争的动机是一种由抗争行动本身带来的、突出的、不同于受损逻辑的“英雄伦理”。这种英雄伦理发展出了互助连带机制、等级区分机制和友情再造机制等三种机制,从而推动着抗争的持续进行。然而,这三种机制在推动抗争持续进行的同时,也存在着各自内在的限制。最后,笔者讨论了“英雄伦理”对于理解中国乡村抗争政治的贡献。     

Immigrant employment through the Great Recession: Individual characteristics and metropolitan contexts

Immigrants continue to settle in metropolitan areas across the United States and bring significant changes to various urban labor markets. Using American Community Survey (ACS) data for 2007 and 2011, we trace the employment outcomes of immigrants compared to native-born workers before and after the recent Great Recession across the 100 largest metropolitan areas and examine individual-level and metropolitan-level factors that shape their employment outcomes. We find that low-skilled workers in general and immigrants without English proficiency and those who are new entrants or earliest arrivals are harder hit in the recession. Latino immigrants and black workers fare worse in areas with high immigrant concentration. Latino immigrants experience employment gains, however, in the South, large urban economies, as well as new immigrant gateways. Asian immigrants see declines in employment likelihood in areas with a large construction sector, while areas with a large trade sector hurt native-born white workers.     

Building a Latino Youth Program: Using Concept Mapping to Identify Community-Based Strategies for Success

ABSTRACT

In this study, a mixed methodology called concept mapping was used to bring 233 community members together to identify culturally relevant intervention strategies that could be used in developing a program for Latino youth. Three phases of data collection were completed to generate and rank 66 desirable strategies clustered around three goals: 1) staying in school, 2) developing positive social and family roles, and 3) bridging American and Latino cultures. An analysis of the rankings revealed differences in priorities between youth and adults. The results indicate that concept mapping can be useful in the development of community-based programs.     

Interethnic Ideology, Intergroup Perceptions, and Cultural Orientation

We examined endorsement of multicultural, assimilation, and colorblind ideologies, including their relations to stereotyping and in-group bias, among community samples of Latinos and non-Latino Whites. Participants also completed measures of their orientations to Latino and non-Latino White cultures. Analyses indicated that participants endorsed multiculturalism more strongly than colorblindness and colorblindness more strongly than assimilation. Although Latinos endorsed multiculturalism more strongly than did Whites, ratings of colorblindness and assimilation did not differ. Both groups exhibited in-group bias and out-group homogeneity. However, multiculturalism was associated with lower in-group bias. Further, Latinos who more strongly endorsed multiculturalism perceived less within group variability (i.e., had stronger stereotypes), whereas the reverse was true for Whites. Finally, analyses of cultural orientation measures indicated that ethnicity is not synonymous with cultural orientation; Latinos were equally oriented to Latino and White cultures, overall, and Latino and White American orientations were unrelated.     

Ethnic Differences in the Effects of Parental Depression on Preschool Children's Socioemotional Functioning

The present study describes the depressive symptomatology of 393 parents of prekindergarten children and assesses ethnic differences in the depression scores of these parents and their differential consequences for children's social competence. Data are drawn from the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) classroom study, a national, longitudinal study examining the quality and outcomes of prekindergarten programs operated in schools or under the direction of state and local educational agencies, and the supplemental NCEDL familial and social environments study. Analyses indicated that Latino parents were more likely than African‐American and White parents to be depressed. However, as reported by both parents and teachers, behavioral outcomes for African‐American children of parents with elevated depressive symptomatology were worse than children of their Latino and White counterparts. Interactions between ethnicity and depressive symptomatology emerged in the parent‐child relationship, with African‐American parents with elevated depressive symptoms reporting significantly greater levels of conflict in the parent–child relationship than their non‐depressed counterparts. African‐American parents with elevated depression scores were also less likely to be in marital relationships than their non‐depressed counterparts. Among African‐American families, parent–child conflict served as a mediator of the effects of parental depression on child outcomes. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Rejection Reactivity,Executive Function Skills,and Social Adjustment Problems of Inattentive and Hyperactive Kindergarteners

This study examined emotional reactivity to rejection and executive function (EF) skills as potential mediators of the social behavior problems of inattentive and hyperactive kindergarteners. Participants included 171 children, including 107 with clinical levels of ADHD symptoms, 23 with sub‐clinical levels of ADHD symptoms, and 41 typically developing children (63 percent male; 73 percent Caucasian, 11 percent African‐American, 4 percent Latino/Hispanic, 1 percent Asian, and 11 percent multiracial; M_age = 5.2 years). Inattention (but not hyperactivity) was uniquely associated with poor EF, social withdrawal, and aggression. In structural equation models, EF skills mediated the associations between inattention and both aggression and social withdrawal. Hyperactivity (but not inattention) was uniquely associated with rejection reactivity and each contributed uniquely to aggression. Findings suggest that difficulties with emotion regulation may warrant more attention in early interventions planned for children with high levels of ADHD symptoms.     

Wrestling with Legacy

Abstract

Those of us who are children of Holocaust refugees and survivors inherit a complex, multi-faceted legacy that manifests itself in various conscious and unconscious ways at different stages of our lives. In the following pages, I share my journey toward a better understanding and integration of my parents' Holocaust experiences, and of the losses they and their extended families suffered under Nazi rule. That understanding necessitated traveling to my father's place of birth, developing relationships with Germans currently residing there, and immersing myself in the details of the demise of the Jewish community of the small rural village of Roth, Germany.

Immersing myself in my father's Holocaust history was both daunting and healing. It provided me with an opportunity to wrestle with my legacy in a way that interrupted the cycle of intergenerational prejudice that I was passing on to my own children. It inspired me to create an educational exhibit that could teach the lessons of the Holocaust in a way that is personal and relevant to students, with the intent of helping visitors to understand their civic responsibility to actively protest against prejudice and social injustice.     

The third-age African American seniors: benefits of participating in senior multipurpose facilities

This article examines the contexts and benefits of African American seniors' participation in multipurpose facilities. Using qualitative data from 15 in-depth participant interviews and 6-month on-site participant observations as well as a survey result, research revealed the physical, emotional, and social benefits that African American seniors reported as a result of their participation in various activities offered in a multipurpose senior center in Atlanta Georgia. The study presents a social context in which African American seniors constructed their new third age identities that is different from the wide-spread negative images depicted by the mainstream about this minority group. Findings from this study increase the knowledge about African American seniors' participation in multipurpose facilities and provide a better understanding for the diverse socio-economic backgrounds of African American seniors. Study results will have policy implications for a better development of senior centers for minority population in the United States for the promotion of productive and successful aging.     

Fitting In: The Roles of Social Acceptance and Discrimination in Shaping the Academic Motivations of Latino Youth in the U.S. Southeast

Using data on 459 Latino ninth graders from the LA-SIAA and the NC-SIAA studies, we evaluate the specific educational values and beliefs that motivate the academic achievement of Latino youth and contrast the school experiences of Latino youth in an emerging Latino community, North Carolina, with the school experiences of youth living in a traditional settlement community, Los Angeles. Despite their greater fears of discrimination, we find that Latino youth in North Carolina are more academically motivated than their peers in Los Angeles. This is partially because they are more likely to be immigrants. Being an immigrant, having a stronger sense of ethnic identification, and having a stronger sense of family obligation were each linked to a more positive view of school environments. Therefore, these factors each partially explained the immigrant advantage in academic motivation and helped to counter the harmful effects of discrimination on academic motivation.     

Latinos and School Vouchers: Testing the “Minority Support” Hypothesis*

Objectives. Voucher proponents, as well as some researchers, argue that minorities and individuals of relatively low socioeconomic status (SES) particularly favor school vouchers. Little work has specifically explored Latino attitudes, with the focus typically on African‐American opinions. This article will therefore examine whether Latinos hold unique attitudes toward vouchers. Methods. Ordinal probit regression analysis of a recent national survey of Latinos, African Americans, and Anglos (non‐Latino whites). Results. In the aggregate, Latinos and African Americans are more likely than Anglos to support vouchers. The Latino population variable is statistically insignificant, however, while the African‐American measure is significant and positive. When the aggregate Latino variable is disaggregated into four major Latino national‐origin groups, Puerto Ricans are shown to hold uniquely favorable opinions about vouchers. In addition, there are no opinion differences by income and education. Conclusions. When Catholicism is taken into account, the voucher opinions of Latinos and Anglos are generally indistinct. This suggests that aggregate Latino support for vouchers may drop if Catholic affiliation further declines.     

Protest Suicide: A Systematic Model with Heuristic Archetypes

Suicide as a form of political protest is a little studied social phenomenon that cannot be dismissed simply as being irrational or patholognomic. We consider protest suicide to be a meaningful social action as purposive political act intended to change oppressive policies or practices. This paper synthesizes theoretical propositions associated with suicide in general, and protest suicide in particular, so as to construct a general explanatory model of protest suicide as a social phenomenon. Then, it analyzes protest suicide as a meaningful social action. People considering protest suicide have to discern the logic of the situation in which such action is to take place. This involves answering two fundamental questions: Is suicide an acceptable course of social action? Is the envisaged protest suicide likely to achieve their hopes, aspirations and goals? How these questions are answered gives rise to a set of protest suicide archetypes. Our analysis generates a more sophisticated understanding of the potential reasons for, and motivations behind, protest suicide as a social phenomenon.     

The Third-Age African American Seniors: Benefits of Participating in Senior Multipurpose Facilities

This article examines the contexts and benefits of African American seniors' participation in multipurpose facilities. Using qualitative data from 15 in-depth participant interviews and 6-month on-site participant observations as well as a survey result, research revealed the physical, emotional, and social benefits that African American seniors reported as a result of their participation in various activities offered in a multipurpose senior center in Atlanta Georgia. The study presents a social context in which African American seniors constructed their new third age identities that is different from the wide-spread negative images depicted by the mainstream about this minority group. Findings from this study increase the knowledge about African American seniors' participation in multipurpose facilities and provide a better understanding for the diverse socio-economic backgrounds of African American seniors. Study results will have policy implications for a better development of senior centers for minority population in the United States for the promotion of productive and successful aging.