Second-Generation Immigrant Children Develop Strong Sense of Ethnic Identity Without Racial Prejudices

Brown University has published a study showing that children of first-generation immigrants develop a strong ethnic identity in childhood, not in adolescence as previously thought.

The study also found that the stronger the sense of ethnic identity the child had, the greater was his or her desire to socialize with both children of his or her own ethnic background and children of different ethnic backgrounds. Both parts of this study contradict previous scholarship that held that ethnic identity formed in teenage years and that a strong sense of ethnicity would result in an equally strong sense of prejudice.

The study was conducted by Cynthia Garcia Coll Professor of Education, Psychology, and Pediatrics at Brown, Amy Marks the adjunct assistant professor of human development at Brown's Center for the Study of Human Development, and their colleagues from Howard University and University of Illinois-Chicago.

The study was unlike similar studies in that it focused on a large number of children from three different ethnic groups for three years. Never before has such a long study concerning American-immigrant children been performed. The study looked at 400 children in first and fourth grades from first-generation Cambodian, Dominican, and Portuguese families in Providence and East Providence, R.I. Researchers were able to ascertain how the children's ethnic identities were developing by asking them to choose labels that describe themselves. The labels included labels of nationality, such as Portuguese and Dominican; hyphenated labels of nationality, like, Portuguese-American; panethnic labels, such as Latino and Asian; racial labels, such as white or black; and ethno-linguistic labels, like Spanish, English, or Khmer. Each child was asked questions about the range of his or her ethnic pride, the personal importance of his or her ethnical identity, and which label makes him or her happiest.