Ethnicity

The term ethnicity comes from the Greek ethnos, which refers to a group of individuals in a nation or tribe. Ethnicity usually refers to sociological factors, such as nationality, region, ancestry, and language. Although there has been significant attention to ethnicity in psychology, the links of ethnicity to individual outcomes are complex. For example, knowing the ethnicity of an individual or a group of individuals provides little explanation of the specific social, emotional, cognitive, and mental health outcomes. Thus, it is necessary to unpack and disentangle the concept of ethnicity and to explore factors that are associated with this concept that may explain a given ethnicity’s influences. This entry discusses ethnicity in the context of families and parents’ goals and values of ethnic socialization and ...