ABSTRACT
A sian Pacific Americans are immigrants and descendants of immigrants from East and South Asia and the Pacific Islands. They constitute at least 29 different groups whose cultural customs are distinct from most other groups in the United States. The term “Asian Pacific
American” will be used as a term in this chapter to include Americans of East Asian (e.g., China, Japan, Korea), Southeast Asian (e.g., Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia), South Asian (e.g., India), and Pacific Island (e.g., Philippines, Hawaii, Samoa) ancestry, whereas the term “Asian American” will be used to refer to persons of East Asian ancestry and not to the other groups. Most research in psychology has been on Americans of East Asian ancestry, with a developing literature on Southeast Asian and South Asian Americans. The literature on Pacific Island Americans is quite limited.
