In Their Own Words

Flores with Resus surveyed the family attitudes of Filipino American students in a California public high school. These students, ages 16, 17, and 18, weave a distinct brand of Filipino American family culture.

Their idea of a nuclear family includes grandparents, uncles, and aunts. They agonize within the "me first" as against the "my family first" construct. The three-generational family household, almost always realized in its pure form, stifles their independence but are most resilient to the demands of straddling two worlds: 1) the world of their parents and their families back home and 2) the contemporary world of the youths in transition to U.S. society's demands for peer assimilation, acculturation, and adherence to social norms.