FIGURE 3-5 Mean physical health and school problems index for adolescents by generation and by country or region of origin: 1995. Source: Harris (1998).

delinquency, use of violence, and substance use tended to increase with each generation for adolescents from all countries of origin taken together (Table 3-2) (Harris, 1998). These risk behaviors also increased for each generation for children with origins in Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America, China, the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, Africa and the Caribbean, and Europe and Canada, although the differences are not always statistically significant (Harris, 1998). For most of these behaviors, the third- and later-generation rates approach and even exceed those of third- and later-generation white children.

In general, the mental health and adjustment of children and youth in immigrant families appears to be similar to, if not better, than that of U.S.-born children and youth in U.S.-born families, in