Ethnicity and Causal Mechanisms: (The Jacobs Foundation Series on Adolescence)

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.

Table of Contents:
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.

About the Author :
Michael Rutter is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. His research has included the genetics of autism, the effect of early severe deprivation on Romanian orphans adopted into Britain, and the study of both school and environmental influences on children's behavior. He has published nearly 40 books. Marta Tienda is Maurice P. During 22 Professor in Demographic Studies and Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She has written and edited numerous papers and several books, including The Hispanic Population of the United States, Divided Opportunities, Hispanics and the U.S. Economy, and The Color of Opportunity.

Review :
'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