Abstract
The United States is fast becoming a nation in which individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups outnumber non-Hispanic Whites. This demographic shift is also occurring in rural communities where a growing number of children are minority group members. To date, relatively little attention has focused on rural minority youth. This chapter provides a demographic overview of these young people, highlighting their diverse racial and ethnic origins as well as differences among rural communities. We provide definitions of rural, race, and ethnicity, noting the challenges and complexities of defining each of these terms. We also consider the geographic distribution of minority groups across the United States and in rural areas. This discussion is followed by a brief review of some key challenges facing minority youth from rural communities. In the final section, we briefly describe the organization of the volume and the focus of each of the chapters.
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Crockett, L.J., Carlo, G., Temmen, C. (2016). Ethnic and Racial Minority Youth in the Rural United States: An Overview. In: Crockett, L., Carlo, G. (eds) Rural Ethnic Minority Youth and Families in the United States. Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20976-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20976-0_1
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