Heterosexual urban middle school students' (N = 1,757) stereotypes about gender typicality, intelligence, and aggression were assessed. Students (M[subscript age] = 12.36 years) rated Facebook-like profiles of peers who varied by gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Several hypotheses about how the gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation…

The effects of school-based ethnic diversity on student well-being and race-related views were examined during the first year in middle school. To capture the dynamic nature of ethnic exposure, diversity was assessed both at the school-level (n = 26) and based on academic course enrollments of African American, Asian, Latino, and White students…

This study examined whether the longitudinal links between mothers' use of spanking and children's externalizing behaviors are moderated by family race/ethnicity, as would be predicted by cultural normativeness theory, once mean differences in frequency of use are controlled. A nationally representative sample of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian…

To examine the development of religious identity during the teenage years, adolescents (N = 477) from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds completed questionnaires in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades (10th grade age: M = 15.81, SD = 0.36). Results indicated that religious identity remained stable across high school whereas religious…

Previous research addressing the dynamics of stigma and academics has focused on African American adolescents and adults. The present study examined stigma awareness, academic anxiety, and intrinsic motivation among 451 young (ages 6-11) and diverse (African American, Chinese, Dominican, Russian, and European American) students. Results indicated…

Poverty-related developmental-risk theories dominate accounts of uneven levels of household functioning and effects on children. But immigrant parents may sustain norms and practices--stemming from heritage culture, selective migration, and social support--that buffer economic exigencies. "Comparable" levels of social-emotional functioning in…

The effect of childhood trauma, psychiatric diagnoses, and mental health services on school dropout among U.S.-born and immigrant youth is examined using data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys, a nationally representative probability sample of African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Asians, Latinos, and non-Latino Whites,…

Because ethnicity is a basis for defining peer crowds in ethnically diverse American high schools, some may question whether crowds foster discrimination and stereotyping or affirm minority youths' positive ties to their ethnic background. Through examination of both self- and peer ratings of crowd affiliation among 2,465 high school youth aged…

An important question for the acculturation of adolescents from immigrant families is whether they retain ethnic labels that refer to their national origin (e.g., Mexican, Chinese) or adopt labels that are dominant in American society (e.g., Latino, Asian American, American). Approximately 380 adolescents from Asian and Latin American immigrant…

Investigated whether three types of family decision making on adolescent adjustment were moderated by ethnicity and/or community. Found that, for joint and unilateral youth decision making, community context interacted with ethnicity in three patterns of influence, refuting the notion that ethnic differences in the influence of parental strictness…