This Handbook presents current research on children and youth in ethnic minority families. It reflects the development currently taking place in the field of social sciences research to highlight the positive adaptation of minority children and youth. It offers a succinct synthesis of where the field is and where it needs to go. It brings together an international group of leading researchers, and, in view of globalization and increased migration and immigration, it addresses what aspects of children and youth growing in ethnic minority families are universal across contexts and what aspects are more context-specific. The Handbook examines the individual, family, peers, and neighborhood/policy factors that protect children and promote positive adaptation. It examines the factors that support children’s social integration, psychosocial adaptation, and external functioning. Finally, it looks at the mechanisms that explain why social adaptation occurs.

This study's purpose was to examine connections between ethnic identity and self-esteem in Native adolescents. A three-factor model of ethnic identity included (a) Native identification, a subjective sense of commitment to Native culture, (b) Anglo, identification, an analogous sense of belonging to the dominant culture, and (c) group-esteem, evaluative appraisals of one's heritage ethnic group. Self-esteem was operationalized with measures of global self-esteem, academic self-concept, and social self-concept. Participants were 164 Native and 150 Anglo grades 10 and 11 students attending a high school in the US Southwest. Confirmatory Factor Analyses and mixed ANOVAs assessed the cross-cultural applicability of study measures. Hierarchical regression was used to evaluate four specific hypotheses. Overall, Native youth had lower self-esteem than Anglo adolescents, but the difference depended on the facet of self-esteem. It was largest for academic self-concept. For global self-esteem the difference was close to statistical significance. No difference was apparent for social self-concept. Hypothesis 1, that Native youths' level of Native identification would be positively associated with self-esteem was not supported. The second hypothesis, that Native youths' level of Anglo identification would be positively associated with their self-esteem, was supported by positive associations between Anglo, identification and both academic and social self-concept. A third hypothesis that predicted a positive association between Native adolescents' group-esteem and self-esteem was supported by positive associations between group-esteem and each measure of self-esteem. The fourth hypothesis implied that association between group-esteem and self-esteem would grow stronger as Native identification increased, but results revealed that as Native identification increased, the association between group-esteem and self-esteem became weaker. The results are discussed considering three theoretical frameworks that inspired the hypotheses (i.e., identity theory; symbolic interactionism; and, a Jamesian account of self-esteem). None of the frameworks accounted for the overall pattern of associations between the three-factors of the model and self-esteem. An alternative interpretation is presented, emphasizing the importance of minority group status as an influence on Native young peoples' self-esteem. The limitations of the study are explored, along with their implications for future theorizing and research in this area. Implications for prevention programs aimed at Native youth are discussed.