In our experience in Southern California with both Asian American and Hispanic American populations, we have been sensitized to similarities and differences in the two subcultural groups (Acosta, Yamamoto, and Evans, in press). Since our work is focused on Southern California, our experiences will be mainly with a selected group of Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans.

Before we begin our comparisons of the two groups and how they fare in treatment, we need to say very clearly that we are aware of the heterogeneity among Asians and Hispanics and that there is a continuum in terms of language, identity, religion, family ties, and acculturation. This is related, of course, to the emphasis of Gordon (1964). In addition, for the Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans, we believe we have to focus on issues of geographical locale, which may powerfully influence the socialization process experienced by the individual in his or her family group.