Few influences are more significant on identity formation and socialization than culture and the family. As America becomes more ethnically diverse, we continue to see how different cultural backgrounds and perspectives are important to understand in order to see the role ethnicity plays in daily interactions. Multicultural diversity is now an accepted catchphrase in the workplace, in colleges and schools, and in community events. However, despite the “melting pot” nature of America, there are often distinct differences among different ethnic groups. This is particularly the case when it comes to family structure and values such as parenting, cohesion, marriage, religion, etc. “The maintenance of ethnic identification and solidarity ultimately rests on the ability of the family to socialize its members into the ethnic culture and thus to channel and control, perhaps program, future behavior” (Mindel, Habenstein, and Wright, 1998, 8). This analysis will explore family structure and values in four ethnic groups: Caucasian-American; Asian-American; African-American; Latino-America. Because of the space limitations of this report, the Asian-American cohort will be Chinese-American and the Latino-American cohort will be Mexican-American.
When we say Caucasian-American, we typically mean Americans of European descent such as the Italians, Germans, and Irish. For purposes of length, we will look at the family structure and values of Italian-Americans in this analysis. The Italian family is thought of as patriarchal but there are distinct roles for men and women and the Italian mother is often a social and emotional leader in family matters. Gender roles are very well-defined in the Italian-American family, to a higher degree than in most other Caucasian-American families “Italian Catholic students are more likely to have a traditional view of sex roles than any other ethnic group, including the Irish, Jews, Poles, and...