Realizing the Potential of Immigrant Youth

Ann S. Masten, PhD, Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, is internationally known for her research on competence, risk and resilience in human development. She is currently President of the Society for Research in Child Development and serves on the Board of Children, Youth, and Families of the US Institute of Medicine/National Academies. She directs the Project Competence studies of risk and resilience, including studies of normative populations and high-risk children exposed to the stress of migration, homelessness, war and natural disasters. Karmela Liebkind, PhD, is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Helsinki and a well-known authority on intergroup relations. Her areas of expertise include the ethnic identity and acculturation of minority youth as well as contact and prejudice between minority and majority members. Professor Liebkind has pursued large-scale international comparative research and published extensively on these topics. She is also regularly consulted by international bodies as an expert in intercultural contact, immigrants, racism and xenophobia. Donald J. Hernandez, PhD, is Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and the City University of New York Graduate Center and Senior Advisor at the Foundation for Child Development. He conducted the first national study documenting reasons for the enormous changes experienced by children since the Great Depression in parental education and work, family composition, income and poverty. He directed the US Institute of Medicine/National Academies study on the health and well-being of children in immigrant families. He currently directs studies on income, race/ethnicity and immigrant disparities in child well-being and on family, education, health and neighborhood environments that foster children's educational success.

• Introduction Ann S. Masten, Karmela Liebkind and Donald J. Hernandez; 1. Resources, strengths, and challenges for children in immigrant families in eight affluent countries Donald J. Hernandez; 2. Better fortunes? Living arrangements and school enrolment of migrant youth in six western countries Audrey N. Beck and Marta Tienda; 3. Income poverty and income support for minority and immigrant households with children in rich countries Timothy S. Smeeding, Karen Robson, Cody Wing and Jonathan Gershuny; 4. Age at immigration and the education outcomes of children Miles Corak; 5. Positive immigrant youth adaptation in context: developmental, acculturation and social psychological perspectives Frosso Motti-Stefanidi, John Berry, Xenia Chryssochoou, David Lackland Sam and Jean Phinney; 6. Understanding the immigrant paradox in youth: developmental and contextual considerations Cynthia Garcia Coll, Flannery Patton, Amy Marks, Radosveta Dimitrova, Rui Yang, Gloria A. Suarez and Andrea Patrico; 7. The contributions of youth to immigrant families Andrew J. Fuligni and Eva H. Telzer; 8. Specifying social psychological adaptation of immigrant youth: social identity, intergroup attitudes and intergroup interactions Karmela Liebkind, Inga Jasinkskaja-Lahti and Tuuli Anna Mahonen; 9. Understanding ethnic minority identity Maykel Verkuyten; 10. Muslim, American, and immigrant: integration despite challenges Selcuk R. Sirin and Taveeshi Gupta; 11. Autonomous-related self and competence: the potential of immigrant youth Cigdem Kagitcibasi; 12. Thriving among immigrant youth: theoretical and empirical bases of positive development Richard M. Lerner, Jacqueline V. Lerner, Edmond Bowers and Selve Lewin-Bizan; 13. The role of developmental transitions in psychosocial competence: a comparison of native and immigrant young people in Germany Rainer K. Silbereisen, Peter F. Titzmann, Andrea Michel, Avi Sagi-Schwartz and Yoav Lavee; 14. Conceptualizing the school acculturative context: school, classroom, and the immigrant student Gabriel Horenczyk and Moshe Tatar; 15. Peer relations in multicultural school Christiane Spiel and Dagmar Strohmier; 16. Latino education in the United States: immigration, language, and achievement Eugene E. Garcia; 17. Promoting the well-being of immigrant youth: a framework for comparing outcomes and policies Brian Nolan.

"...Realizing the Potential of Immigrant Youth is a comprehensive volume, written and assembled by experts in the field and providing timely and important information regarding the status, demography, and life conditions of immigrant children in primary target countries in North America and Europe.... provides an excellent source of fundamental information for policy makers, educators, scientists, charitable service providers, immigration officials, law enforcement officials, and public health professionals. I would also highly recommend use of this volume for college courses in sociology and anthropology." --Dr. Tanya LeBlanc, PsycCRITIQUES