Immigrant Families in Contemporary Society

How do some families successfully negotiate the linguistic, cultural, and psychological challenges of immigration, while others struggle to acculturate? This timely volume explores the complexities of immigrant family life in North America and analyzes the individual and contextual factors that influence health and well-being. Synthesizing cutting-edge research from a range of disciplines, the book addresses such key topics as child development, school achievement, and the cultural and religious contexts of parenting. It examines the interface between families and broader systems, including schools, social services, and intervention programs, and discusses how practices and policies might be improved to produce optimal outcomes for this large and diverse population.

Jennifer E. Lansford, PhD, is Research Scientist at the Duke University Center for Child and Family Policy. Her research focuses on the development of aggression and other behavior problems in youth, with an emphasis on how family and peer contexts contribute to or protect against these outcomes. Dr. Lansford examines how experiences with parents (e.g., discipline, physical abuse, divorce) and peers (e.g., rejection, friendships) affect the development of children’s behavior problems, how influence operates in adolescent peer groups, and how cultural contexts moderate links between parents’ discipline strategies and children’s behavior problems. Kirby Deater-Deckard, PhD, is Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in the Department of Psychology at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In his research, he examines genetic and environmental influences on child and adolescent social-emotional and cognitive development, with particular emphasis on parenting and cultural influences. Dr. Deater-Deckard has published several papers, book chapters, and books in the areas of developmental psychology and child development. He is Joint Editor of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Marc H. Bornstein, PhD, is Senior Investigator and Head of Child and Family Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He was a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and has received awards from the National Institutes of Health and the American Psychological Association, among others. Dr. Bornstein is coauthor of Development in Infancy, now in its fifth edition, as well as numerous other volumes. He is Editor Emeritus of Child Development and Founding Editor of Parenting: Science and Practice.