Survey Depicts Latinos as Divided

LOS ANGELES — A new, comprehensive survey of young Latinos paints a mixed picture of their footing in the United States. They express overall satisfaction with their lives, despite high levels of poverty and teenage pregnancy, while carving an identity based more on their parents’ home country rather than labels like “American” or even “Hispanic” or “Latino.”

The findings come from a report, “Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America,” to be released Friday by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group.

The report combines an analysis of census and other demographic data with a telephone poll last summer of 2,012 Latinos ages 16 and older, 1,240 of them from 16 to 25. The overall margin of error is four percentage points.

The goal was to provide a close-up look at an ethnic group representing one in four newborns — an unprecedented share among minorities — and one in five schoolchildren that “will help shape the kind of society America becomes in the 21st century,” as the report puts it.

Two-thirds of Latinos ages 16 to 25 are native-born Americans, according to the report. This year, it said, is the first time that a plurality of the group, 37 percent, are the American-born children of immigrants; just 34 percent are immigrants.

But the findings suggest, as the report states, “The melting pot is dead. Long live the salad bowl,” when it comes to how young Latinos and others perceive their place in America.

When asked how they first described themselves, 52 percent said their preference was for their family’s country of origin — Dominican, Mexican, Cuban, etc. — over American, which 24 percent favored. Even fewer, 20 percent, responded Hispanic or Latino.

More than three in four say they are “some other race” or identify Hispanic or Latino, even though, according to the Census Bureau, that is an ethnic designation. Sixteen percent of young Latinos identify themselves as white, compared with 30 percent of adult Latinos.

In addition, 48 percent of the young Latinos (ages 16 to 25) said they spoke English very well or pretty well.

Researchers at the Pew Hispanic Center could not fully explain such findings, but Mark Hugo Lopez, an associate director, said their identity was probably rooted at home.

“Generally, among young Hispanics, their parents are more likely to talk of pride in being from a specific country of origin and encourage them to speak Spanish,” Mr. Lopez said. “There is a strong emphasis on Hispanic cultural identity.”

Over all, young Latinos have a positive outlook on their future, with 75 percent expecting to be better off financially than their parents. About 89 percent say career success is very important to them, compared with 80 percent for the entire population of 18- to 25-year-olds.

But the report points to stumbling blocks.

Young Latinos have higher teenage pregnancy rates than blacks, whites or Asians, with slightly more than one in four Hispanic girls giving birth by age 19.

Just under a third of young Latinos said they had a friend or relative who was a current or former gang member, with those born in the United States far outpacing the foreign-born in knowing gang members.

Researchers did not ask respondents if they were in a gang, nor was there data comparing the result to other groups.

But the authors of the report said such findings highlighted the circumstances many Latinos live in.

Altogether, said Paul Taylor, the director of the Pew Hispanic Center, “for young Latinos coming of age the glass is both half full and half empty.”

“There are a lot of positive indicators,” Mr. Taylor said, “but also lot of negative indicators.”