Focusing on the formation of ethnic self-identities during adolescence, this article examines the psychosocial adaptation of children of immigrants from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The data are drawn from a survey carried out in the San Diego and Miami metropolitan areas of over 5000 children of immigrants attending the eighth and ninth grades in local schools. Instead of a uniform assimilative path, segmented paths to identity formation were found. Detailed social portraits are sketched for each ethnic identity type. Multivariate analyses then explore the determinants of assimilative and dissimilative ethnic self-identities and of other aspects of psychosocial adaptation. The theoretical and practical implications of these results - especially the effects of acculturation, discrimination, location and ethnic density of schools, parental socialization and family context, upon the psychosocial adaptation of children of recent immigrants to the US are discussed. -from Author

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California USA San Diego children's response self-esteem Miami ethnic identity cultural assimilation Florida immigrant population