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Research clearly indicates that ethnic groups differ significantly on levels of mental and physical health, antisocial behavior, and educational attainment. This book explains these variations among ethnic groups with respect to their psychological and social functioning and tests competing hypotheses about the mechanisms that might cause the functioning to be better, worse, or different in pattern from other groups. Attention is paid to educational attainments, antisocial behavior, schizophrenia and suicide, and to the complex and changing patterns of ethnic identity. The book also focuses on evidence on risk and protective factors that is used systematically to ask whether such factors might account for the differences in both migration histories and ethnic mixture. It concludes with a discussion of the multiple meanings of ethnicity, the major variations among ethnic groups, and the policy implications of the findings discussed in the book.

It has been known for many years that physical disease or damage, especially of the brain, are associated with an increased risk for psychosocial disorders. However, the understanding of the mechanisms involved in these biological risk processes, and of the marked individual differences in response, is of much more recent origin. The role of genetic factors, perinatal brain damage, sex hormones, allergy, drugs and language disorder, are among the topics selected to illustrate the wide range of mechanisms involved in the development of psychosocial disorders in childhood or later life. Authors were asked to write for a multidisciplinary audience, to adopt a lifespan approach, to focus on the principles involved, and to highlight the outstanding research and clinical issues in each field. The result is a readable and highly authoritative overview of the factors responsible for a wide range of behavioural and psychological problems. It is a book which will interest practitioners and resea