Research Paper on:
Student Cultural Diversity and Counseling

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
self definition and an integral part of that definition goes to racial and ethnic identity. This concept has gotten considerably more complicated as an increasing percentage of the nations  population has come to define themselves as mixed, bi-racial or multi-ethnic. Children who attempt to define themselves by their own standards, as opposed to the standards of the  past, sometimes run into trouble. Counselors in the schools need to educate themselves due to the new realties, so that they can help children assimilate in a black and white  world. When one has to check off race on a government form, he or she is often hard pressed to do so because there is no check box for half  Hispanic/half Asian for example. This becomes increasingly problematic as the racial and ethnic composition of the society changes. The racial composition of the United States has become more and  more diverse (Phinney, 1996). While the composition of the United States was predominantly White, Black, or Native American, the current population now includes greater numbers of Latinos, Asians, and a  variety of other ethnicities (1996). According to the Census of Population and Housing, conducted in 1990, one in four Americans were members of minority groups at the time (1996). With  the population becoming more integrated, the increase in interfaith and interracial marriage is inevitable. Where previously, children played with others of similar backgrounds, as their schools and communities were homogeneous,  todays children have friends from a variety of cultures. As they grow up and become teenagers, they will choose to date through their circle of friends which will likely include  members from different cultural groups. Although this trend is positive culturally and in even genetically, it can lead to difficulties, particularly as offspring of mixed marriages reach for a sense