Parental Academic Involvement in Cross-border marriage, Native and Immigrant Families: The Roles of Family Resources and Parental Expectations

Abstract

Migration patterns have become more complicated than before. The increase in cross-border marriage has increased the diversity of the student population. A simple distinction between native and immigrant students overly simplifies their diverse backgrounds. Analyzing data from PISA 2012, we attempt to fill the gap in the literature by comparing parental involvement between cross-border marriage, native, and immigrant families in Hong Kong, with a special focus on the roles of family resources and parental expectations. Our findings show that cross-border marriage families are significantly different from and sit between native families and immigrant families in terms of family resources, parental expectations, and parental involvement. Family resources play a greater role than parental expectations in the differences in parental involvement between cross-border marriage families, native families, and migrant families. This suggests that the disadvantages of cross-border marriage and immigrant families in parental involvement largely stem from a lack of family resources.