Annotated Bibliography Worksheet

1.Citation (ASA Style):

Bankston III, Carl L. and Min Zhou. 1997. “The Social Adjustment of Vietnamese
American Adolescents: Evidence for a Segmented-Assimilation Approach.” Social
Science Quarterly (University of Texas Press) 78: 508-523

2. What is the primary research question or thesis of this article?

Using the differential association theory and segmented-assimilation approach, the author
is trying to analyze the effect of major American racial groups and Americanized
coethnics association with Vietnamese Americans.

3. What are the characteristics of the population studied? How many

people, ages, genders, race/ethnicity/nationality, professions, etc.?
How were these people selected?

The population studied in this article was Vietnamese high-school

students from one of three schools in the eastern New Orleans area:
two of the schools were near biracial communities and majority black
schools, the third school is an elite school where student around the
city attend and is majority white. The students were selected based on
their presence in school on the day the researchers conducted their
survey. In all 402 Vietnamese high school students were surveyed.

4. What research method(s) was employed by the researchers? Was

this appropriate for the population and the research question? Were
there limitations to this method?

The researchers examined three models in the study. The first excluded the measures of
differential association and the US Census was used to construct the demographics that
surround the Vietnamese immigrants’ youth to describe the different assimilation
contexts. The second includes variables of peer association; the research methods that
were employed for this model were surveys, multivariate regression, and interviews. The
third includes variables of association with different peer groups and with deviant
subgroups; the survey contained some scaling when they looked into the beneficial or
problematic nature of friendship groups and the effect of group association on the social
adjustment of Vietnamese youth.

5. What were the primary findings of the research?

The researchers’ findings were beneficial to the relevance of the segmented-assimilation

approach. They found that peer groups are the foremost direct influence on the adaptation
of young Vietnamese Americans than are individual and family characteristics.
Specifically, those peers groups of the underprivileged minority have a significant
stronger constructive impact on the cultural assimilation of Vietnamese adolescents. The
study also indicates that assimilation comes in two forms: structural assimilation and
cultural assimilation. Furthermore, studies suggest that being structurally assimilate into
the group that have the most resources has a negative affect on their social adaptation
with the exception of those who are fostered at the elite school. Although this seem to be
a universal account of the segmented-assimilation theory different communities’ societal
factors can bear different results.

6. Critique this article; discuss method, findings, analysis, writing style,

or other elements of the research project.
     
I think the researchers did a good job presenting the argument for
segmented assimilation. I have gained an understanding of the
segmented assimilation from leading this article. The primary research
question was clearly stated which made it easy to follow the methods.
The methods used were reliable and appropriate for the study.