Yoonsun Choi

Testing the Model Minority Stereotype: Youth Behaviors across Racial and Ethnic Groups

Using data from a large nationally representative sample of adolescents attending school, this study tests the stereotype that youth of Asian Pacific Islander ethnicity (API) are the model minority. The results suggest that, except for substance use, API American youth do not report fewer delinquent behaviors than white youth; in fact, API American youth report slightly higher numbers of aggressive offenses than white youth, and female API American youth report greater numbers of nonaggressive offenses than white female youth. Also, API American youth report higher rates of nonaggressive offenses and substance use than do black youth. The mental health and social service needs of API American youth are thus at least as great as those of white youth. The need for such services increases with the length of residency in the United States.

Examining equivalence of concepts and measures in diverse samples.

While there is growing awareness for the need to examine the etiology of problem behaviors across cultural, racial, socioeconomic, and gender groups, much research tends to assume that constructs are equivalent and that the measures developed within one group equally assess constructs across groups. The meaning of constructs, however, may differ across groups or, if similar in meaning, measures developed for a given construct in one particular group may not be assessing the same construct or may not be assessing the construct in the same manner in other groups. The aims of this paper were to demonstrate a process of testing several forms of equivalence including conceptual, functional, item, and scalar using different methods. Data were from the Cross-Cultural Families Project, a study examining factors that promote the healthy development and adjustment of children among immigrant Cambodian and Vietnamese families. The process described in this paper can be implemented in other prevention studies interested in diverse groups. Demonstrating equivalence of constructs and measures prior to group comparisons is necessary in order to lend support of our interpretation of issues such as ethnic group differences and similarities.

Neighborhoods, Family, and Substance Use: Comparisons of the Relations across Racial and Ethnic Groups.

This study examines how substance use among adolescents is related to several risk and protective factors derived from two ecological contexts: the neighborhood and the family. It explicitly investigates how the relationships between substance use and the factors vary across different racial and ethnic groups. Findings suggest many common correlates and processes of substance use for adolescents, regardless of race or ethnicity, including that neighborhood safety is associated with substance use. There are also some racial and ethnic group differences in relationships, including that low attachment to and lack of social opportunities in neighborhoods more strongly predict substance use among whites than among other racial and ethnic groups and that family management decreases the relationship between neighborhood safety and substance use among African Americans. A better understanding of the associations among factors that influence substance use across racial and ethnic subgroups can help effectively target preventive interventions for different groups.

Analysis with missing data in social work research

Abstract Missing data occur in virtually all research. Traditional methods for handling missing data, like complete case analyses and mean substitution, can result in the loss of statistical power and biased estimates of parameters. Recent statistical and software developments have provided readily accessible methods of handling missing data that provide more statistical power and less biased estimates than in the past. This paper compares newer techniques and the statistical programs that employ these techniques for imputing data in structural equation modeling analysis. The techniques presented include the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, multiple imputations (MI), and raw maximum-likelihood (RML), as employed in the statistical programs EMCOV, NORM, Amos, and Mplus. The assumptions, benefits, and limitations of each method and accompanying statistical programs are discussed.

Bilinear and Multidimensional Cultural Orientations and Indigenous Family Process Among Korean Immigrant Mothers and Fathers.

This study examined how parental cultural orientations and family process are related among Korean immigrant parents (272 mothers and 164 fathers, N = 436) and how the relationship varies across fathers and mothers. Multiple scales were used to assess bilinear and multidimensional cultural orientation toward both the culture of origin and mainstream culture. The dimensions of language, identity, and cultural participation as well as the number of years living in the United States were analyzed. The main findings include the following: (a) parents who maintain heritage culture orientation were more likely to preserve traditional parenting values and practices, (b) parental host culture orientation largely had no effect on traditional parenting, but some elements of the host culture orientation were in fact associated with stronger endorsements of traditional parenting, (c) each dimension of acculturation differentially related to traditional parenting, and (d) significant relationships were more pronounced among parenting values than practices. These patterns were largely similar across mothers and fathers. Although some mixed findings suggest the complexity of the hypothesized relationships, the present study findings highlight the importance of bilinear and multidimensional acculturation and core versus peripheral elements of culture in family process. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Culture and Family Process: Examination of Culture-Specific Family Process via Development of New Parenting Measures Among Filipino and Korean American Families with Adolescents

This chapter reports basic psychometric properties of underused and newly developed measures of family process among Filipino and Korean American families and further examines their relations to several existing conventional measures of family process to describe culturally unique as well as universal aspects of family process among the target subgroups of Asian American families. In so doing, this study provides a unique understanding of how Filipino and Korean American parenting styles converge and diverge from mainstream culture while modifying traditional cultural elements of the parenting process. For example, Filipino American parents appear to practice an authoritative style of parenting, reporting more explicit and implicit expressions of affection and showing more hands-on involvement in their children’s socialization than do Korean American parents. At the same time, they also score more highly on restrictive and authoritarian measures than Korean Americans. This study presents evidence that the characteristics of presumed collectivist cultures in America are highly variable, and that Baumrind’s typology does not necessarily correlate with expected parenting practices within such collectivist cultures.

Asian American Parenting

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Culture and Family Process: Measures of Familism for Filipino and Korean American Parents

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Impact of youth cultural orientation on perception of family process and development among Korean Americans.

This study tests the psychometric properties of multiple survey items and scales that are either underused or newly developed to assess familism among Asian Americans. Using data collected from 150 Filipino and 188 Korean American parents (mostly mothers) in the Midwest region in 2013, the measures were examined for validity and reliability for each group and, when appropriate, for cross-cultural equivalence across the groups. Several scales and their items showed high quality psychometric properties and are ready for use to more accurately assess family process of each target group and to conduct comparative analyses. The findings also show that, contrary to the expectation, Filipino American families express more traditional aspects of familism than do Korean American families, and are more likely to reinforce traditional familism beliefs and behaviors among their children. This study reinforces a need for more empirical- and subgroup-specific research effort.

Explicating Acculturation Strategies among Asian American Youth: Subtypes and Correlates across Filipino and Korean Americans

Objectives: This study examined how cultural orientations influence youth perception of family processes in Korean American families and how these family processes, in turn, predict depressive symptoms and antisocial behaviors among youth. Family processes were examined separately for maternal and paternal variables. Method: This study used survey data from Korean American families living in the Midwest (256 youth and their parents) across 2 time periods, spanned over a year. At the time of the first interview, the average age of youth was 13 (SD = 1.00). Using structural equation modeling, this study tested the hypothesized associations concurrently, longitudinally, and accounting for earlier outcomes. Results and Conclusion: Results show that identity and behavioral enculturation in one’s heritage culture are predictors of bonding with parents, which is notably protective for youth. The results highlight the critical effect of enculturation in enhancing youth perception of the parent–child relationship. Behavioral acculturation to mainstream culture, in contrast, predicts youth problems, although the effect may not necessarily always be via family processes. Similarly, Korean and English language proficiencies predict fewer youth problems, but not always by way of family processes. A few differences emerged across maternal and paternal variables, although there was much commonality in the hypothesized relationships.