ABSTRACT
The United States is entering a time of unprecedented ethnic diversity, one which Hernandez (1997, p. 159) calls an era of “revolutionary demographic transformations . . . in the nature of childhood.” In particular, between 1900 and 1970, European Americans accounted for 85% to 89% of the U.S. child population. By 1995, this proportion had fallen to 69%, and is projected to decline still further to 42% by 2050. Also by that date, Latino children are expected to be the largest minority group, comprising 28% of the U.S. child population; early returns from the 2000 census indicate that Latinos have already edged out African Americans as the largest U.S. minority population (12.5% as compared to 12.3% of the population). Latinos, an umbrella term used to refer to people who have their origins in Mexico, Central or South America, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, are one of the fastest growing minority groups within the United States. Between 1990 and 2000, the Latino population grew by 58%, compared to a single-digit growth rate in the nation among non-Latino groups. The 2000 census counted 35.3 million Latinos living in the United States, or roughly one out of every eight Americans. Given the relative youth of the Latino population (over 70% are under age 40), and assuming a continuation of current migratory and fertility trends, this number is expected to rise to one in four by 2050 (United States Census Bureau, 1992, 1993, 2001).1
