Mexican-American Youth: The Impact of Generation and Gender on Outcomes in Young Adulthood

Abstract

Immigrant children have been shown to have poorer outcomes in adulthood as compared to nonimmigrant children. However, there is little information on how 1.5 generation youth (those youth immigrating before age 12) fare compared to second generation children. Using data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, we examine the impact of generation and gender on the social and economic outcomes of Mexican American young adults. Both logistic regression and least squares regression are used. Results indicate that 1.5 generation females have worse outcomes compared to their peers.