Ethnicity and Causal Mechanisms

Research clearly indicates that ethnic groups differ significantly on levels of mental and physical health, antisocial behavior, and educational attainment. This book explains these variations among ethnic groups with respect to their psychological and social functioning and tests competing hypotheses about the mechanisms that might cause the functioning to be better, worse, or different in pattern from other groups. Attention is paid to educational attainments, antisocial behavior, schizophrenia and suicide, and to the complex and changing patterns of ethnic identity. The book also focuses on evidence on risk and protective factors that is used systematically to ask whether such factors might account for the differences in both migration histories and ethnic mixture. It concludes with a discussion of the multiple meanings of ethnicity, the major variations among ethnic groups, and the policy implications of the findings discussed in the book.

• Dispassionate consideration of evidence presented in a non-technical style • Focus on multiple meanings of ethnicity • Discussion of possible causal mechanisms

Introduction Michael Rutter and Marta Tienda; 1. Natural experiments, causal influences, and policy development Michael Rutter; 2. Growing up ethnic in the UK and US: comparative contexts for youth development Marta Tienda; 3. The multiple facets of ethnicity Michael Rutter and Marta Tienda; 4. Educational attainments: ethnic differences in the UK Barbara Maughan; 5. Race and ethnic inequality in educational attainment in the United States Charles Hirschman and Jennifer C. Lee; 6. Racial and ethnic disparities in crime and delinquency in the United States Jeffrey D. Morenoff; 7. Explaining ethnic variations in crime and antisocial behavior in the UK David J. Smith; 8. Cultural differences in the effects of physical punishment Kirby Deater-Deckard, Kenneth A. Dodge and Emma Sorbring; 9. Ethnicity and mental health: the example of schizophrenia in the African-Caribbean population in Europe Peter B. Jones and W. L. Alan Fung; 10. Ethnic variations in youth suicide Jewelle Taylor Gibbs; 11. Ethnicity and intergenerational identities and adaptations in Britain: the socio-political context Tariq Modood; 12. Assimilation, dissimilation, and ethnic identities: the experience of children of immigrants in the United States Ruben G. Rumbaut; 13. Deciphering ethnicity Marta Tienda and Michael Rutter.

\'This fascinating book is concerned with the ways in which ethnicity may have a causal role in young people\'s adjustment … multidisciplinary perspectives in the book are reflected in the editors\' expertise … interesting contributions from UK experts … anybody who is curious about human adjustment will find this a very illuminating and interesting book. It deserves to be widely read. The book sets the standard for future studies related to ethnicity, as well as giving ideas for what might be investigated in further work.\' Primary Care & Community Psychiatry