Family socialization of ethnic identity among Chinese American pre-adolescents

The linkage between family structure, language, and ethnic identity is inve stigated to find out the effects of two major socialization mechanisms: one , family cultural transmission, and the other, structural symbolic interact ion. The data on Chinese-American children indicates that family language p roficiency is retained mainly through parental teaching; thus, first-born c hildren and those with fewer siblings were favored. The construction of eth nic identity by children has followed a different process. Volition and soc ial construction by children themselves, as predicted by structural interac tionists, were found to have some influence in determining their version of ethnicity. The evidence further suggests that children reacted negatively to parental pressure to retain Chinese identity and that family structure, e.g. sibling size or birth order, also delimits a range for these children' s reactions and identity formation.