By Shinwha Whang, Greater Good Magazine, May 24, 2021
Like many kids growing up in the United States, I came of age straddling two cultures: that of my family’s country of origin, and mainstream/majority American culture.
There was a significant Asian-American community where I grew up, and among my friends I saw many ways in which families negotiated these two cultures. Some families spoke their first language at home, some didn’t. Some ate their heritage foods for all their meals, some only for special occasions. Some made annual trips to their country of origin, while others never or seldom visited. Mixed into these everyday practices, parents modeled attitudes about race, racism, and the majority culture, verbally and nonverbally.
All of these ingredients in an upbringing make up what social scientists call the ethnic-racial socialization of children—and as two new studies suggest, those choices have consequences for the health and well-being of young people.
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