Children Of Native-born Parents Research Articles

Educational achievement and health during adolescence in second generation immigrants in Sweden

Abstract Background Over the last decades, immigration have increased markedly in Sweden. Educational achievement is essential for successful integration; however, second generation immigrants have been shown to lag behind. There is a complex intertwinement between educational attainment and health outcomes. Thus, schooling is crucial in terms of integration but also from a public health perspective. We aim to compare school performance and health in children of immigrant parents and children of parents born in Sweden. Methods In this population-based cohort study, 1723 children were followed from birth to age 20. Of these 246 (14.3%) had at least one parent born abroad. Logistic regression was performed controlling for gender, language spoken at home and sociodemographic data obtained at 3 months, 3-, 12- and 20 years. Outcome measures were school performance at age 12 (n = 984), grades from compulsory and upper secondary school (n = 1668) and register data on psychiatric diagnoses (n = 737). Self-response questionnaires on general health, long term health problems and psychiatric conditions were administered at age 20 (n = 731). Results There were no differences in reading (p = 0.676) or mathematics (p = 0.324) at age 12, eligibility to upper secondary school (p = 0.298) or university (p = 0.232) between second generation immigrants and children of native-born parents. No differences in frequency of psychiatric diagnoses (p = 0.112), presence of long-term health problems (p = 0.267) or self-reported health (p = 0.595) were shown. Conclusions The results indicate that young adults born in Sweden in the middle of the 1990’s with immigrant parents perform similarly in school compared to children of parents born in Sweden. They are not at increased risk for mental illness, long-term health conditions and report their general health equivalently to children of native-born. The comprehensive school system and child health programs used in Sweden are likely important factors to promote education and health. Key messages • In a birth-cohort of children followed into early adulthood, no difference in educational achievement or health was shown between second generation immigrants and children of parents born in Sweden. • International comparative studies are needed to highlight the importance of underlying structural and socio-cultural factors.

A latent class analysis of multifaceted economic experience and socioemotional well-being of children of immigrants.

Developmental studies have consistently argued for consideration of contextual influences on children's socioemotional well-being. This is particularly true among children of immigrants, who have highly diverse social, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten, this study disentangled the variation of socioemotional well-being among children of immigrants in the United States by looking at country of origin and their multifaceted economic experiences. The study first examined the economic lives of children of immigrants by conducting a latent class analysis with 3 dimensions-depth, duration, and income volatility from kindergarten to fifth grade. It further investigated how multifaceted economic experiences shaped the socioemotional perceptions of children of immigrants by considering country of origin. Findings from this study support both the immigrant risk and immigrant paradox perspectives, depending on country of origin, patterns of economic experiences, and the examined socioemotional domain. Children of immigrants generally perceived themselves to have a worse locus of control, self-concept, and internalizing symptoms at eighth grade than their peers of native-born parents. After considering the economic circumstances of these families, the picture was no longer straightforward. Children of South East Asian and East Asian origins reported worse socioemotional well-being than their White peers of native-born parents in chronic near-poor circumstances. Otherwise, most children of immigrants fared as well as their White children of native-born parents under similar economic conditions. Findings underscore the importance of country of origin and economic experiences in accounting for the variations of socioemotional well-being among children of immigrants. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Educational System and the Ethnic Skills Gap among the Working-Age Population: An Analysis of 16 Western Immigration Countries

Research shows that children of immigrants, the “second generation,” have comparatively high educational aspirations. This “immigrant optimism” translates into ambitious educational choices, given the second generation’s level of academic performance. Choice-driven (comprehensive) education systems, which allow the children of immigrants to follow their ambitions, are therefore regarded as facilitating their structural integration. The authors focus on an underappreciated consequence of these findings. If the second generation strives for higher qualifications than children of native-born parents with similar performance, working-age children of immigrants should have lower skills than children of native-born parents with comparable formal education. This could result in (statistical) employer discrimination and ultimately hamper integration. This pattern should be particularly pronounced in choice-driven education systems and in systems that emphasize vocational education. Two-step regression models using data on 16 countries support these expectations. The authors explore implications of these findings for comparative research on ethnic gaps in labor market attainment.

Mathieu Ichou, Les Enfants d’immigrés à l’école

It is common to hear in the fields of educational and immigration sociology that on average, the children of immigrants do not perform as well in school as children of native-born parents. Mathieu Ichou offers an innovative sociological analysis on a topic that is heavily exploited by political and media discourse, and subject to much scientific controversy. The author takes distance from the homogenized vision of a “second generation” of students who have totally failed academically, and rep...

The Educational Gradient in Health among Children in Immigrant Families.

Educational inequality in the health of U.S. children-what social scientists refer to as the "educational gradient" in health-is present at birth for virtually every marker of health, and increases throughout childhood. However, a puzzling contradiction to this pattern has been observed among the growing population of youth in immigrant families. Some evidence suggests an ambiguous relationship between education and health among immigrant families, with a flat relationship between maternal education and maternal health behaviors and children's birth outcomes, and a stronger relationship as children become adolescents. Does an educational gradient in health emerge among children in immigrant families during childhood and adolescence? To date, we lack a prospective examination of how the gradient changes from birth throughout childhood and adolescence among this population. Moreover, while the dominant explanation for a weaker gradient among children with immigrant parents centers on the family setting, we know little about family-level dynamics among the same immigrant families as children age. Using national, longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, we examine the association between maternal education and children's health (measured by mothers' ratings) over the early life course (birth through age 15) among children of immigrants and children of native-born parents, and consider whether changes in children's economic status and family composition contribute to the educational gradient, or lack thereof, in child health. Analyses reveal that: (1) maternal education is strongly predictive of health, even among children of immigrants; (2) immigrant status does not appear to be protective for health within educational groups, as evidenced by poorer health among children of immigrants whose mothers have the lowest level of education, as compared to children of natives; (3) children in the least-educated immigrant families are experiencing better health trajectories as they age than children in similar native-born families; and (4) accounting for economic conditions and family composition does not reduce the size of the gradient over time.

Cross-Cultural Study of Community Engagement in Second-Generation Immigrants

This research examined the role of cultural similarity in community engagement of second-generation immigrants (SGIs). While previous findings examined the rate of community engagement in SGIs, it is still unclear what may be associated with a higher community engagement in SGIs. Based on previous research on cultural similarities, we proposed that SGIs who are more culturally dissimilar to the host culture would have a higher host orientation and thus have higher community engagement than SGIs who are more culturally similar. Study 1 used data from the World Value Survey (WVS) 2010-2014 (Wave 6) to test whether region (varied in cultural similarity between SGIs’ home culture and the host cultures) was related to the pattern of general community engagement. Hong Kong, which received more culturally similar immigrants, was compared with the United States, which received less culturally similar immigrants. A negative binomial regression analysis (bootstrapped r = 2000) showed a significant Region × SGI Status interaction. Specifically, community engagement was found to be higher in SGIs than children of native-born parents (CNBs) in the U.S. sample, but not in the Hong Kong sample, as predicted. Study 2 extended Study 1 to test the relation between perceived cultural similarity and SGIs’ community engagement in a U.S. sample. A sample of 300 U.S. SGIs was recruited through Qualtrics Panels. Bootstrapped ( r = 2000) results showed that lower perceived cultural similarity predicted higher community engagement in host-national communities. This relation was mediated by SGIs’ acculturation orientations toward the host culture. In addition, SGIs’ acculturation orientations toward the home culture predicted higher community engagement in conational communities.

Household Food Insecurity and Early Childhood Health and Cognitive Development Among Children of Immigrants

Food insecurity is negatively related to child development and health. In this study, we use Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort data to assess the cognitive and health consequences of household food insecurity for children of immigrants compared with children of native-born parents. Results suggest that children of immigrants from food insecure households fare worse than their native peers from food insecure households in health but not in cognitive skills after child and maternal demographic characteristics are taken into account. The remaining health disparity between children in food insecure immigrant households and children in food insecure nonimmigrant households is explained away by immigrant risk and protective factors. Having parents with strong mental health and living in two-parent families partially offset the negative health consequences associated with food insecurity. However, compared with food insecure nonimmigrant children, low socioeconomic risk may exacerbate the negative ...

Preschools as language learning environments for children of immigrants. Differential effects by familial language use across different preschool contexts

Children of immigrants often enter school with lower language skills than children of native-born parents. In this paper, we analyze the impact of the duration of preschool attendance on the language development from age three to six of children of Turkish immigrants and children of native-born parents in Germany. We investigate whether the impact of preschool attendance differs by familial language use while also considering different characteristics of the preschool context (quality and ethnic composition). Using fixed effects models, we find that a longer time spent in preschool is associated with better German language skills for Turkish-origin children with low levels of German language input at home. This result is very stable across different preschool contexts. The results highlight the importance of targeted interventions at an early age.

The risk of delayed school entry in relation to migration background in different institutional settings

In Germany, children of immigrants are faced with delayed school entry about twice as often as children of native-born parents because they are more often diagnosed not being ready for school. We investigate these early educational inequalities, focusing on the interplay of individual competencies and the institutional context in terms of the school enrollment procedure. We compare the conventional procedure, where school enrollment is supposed to be bound on school readiness, with reformed procedures where school enrollment is not supposed to be bound on school readiness. Data of school entry examinations from Hesse, Germany from 2008–2012 are analyzed (N = 50,717). The results show that children of immigrants from all origin groups have a substantially higher risk of obtaining a recommendation for delayed school entry than children of native-born parents. However, these ethnic differences are strongly reduced in the reformed procedures as compared to the conventional school enrollment procedure, indicating that these procedures could be an effective measure to reduce ethnic educational inequalities at school start.

Neighborhood Structure, Immigrant Status, and Youth Violence

Research indicates that children of immigrants are less likely to engage in violence than children of native-born parents, even when they live in high-risk neighborhoods, suggesting that foreign-born parents employ strategies that buffer children from delinquency. Parental supervision is important for adolescent well-being, and some scholars suggest it is especially important for adolescents residing in disadvantaged communities. Others argue supervision is more critical for youth residing in advantaged contexts, where parental involvement is normative. To date, evidence on the interplay between supervision and neighborhood characteristics is mixed, suggesting a more complex relationship. This study considers whether immigrant status further conditions the interplay between supervision and neighborhood characteristics, using data from a sample of adolescents residing in Chicago neighborhoods. Findings indicate that less supervised, first-generation adolescents are more likely to perpetrate violence in low-risk neighborhoods, while less supervised, second- and third-generation adolescents are more likely to perpetrate violence in high-risk settings.

Child care subsidies and the school readiness of children of immigrants.

This study is the first to test whether receipt of a federal child care subsidy is associated with children of immigrants' school readiness skills. Using nationally representative data (n≈2,900), this study estimates the associations between subsidy receipt at age 4 and kindergarten cognitive and social outcomes, for children of immigrant versus native-born parents. Among children of immigrants, subsidized center-based care (vs. subsidized and unsubsidized home-based care) was positively linked with reading. Among children of native-born parents, those in subsidized center care displayed poorer math skills than those in unsubsidized centers, and more externalizing problems than those in unsubsidized home-based care.

The effect of reading aloud daily—Differential effects of reading to native-born German and Turkish-origin immigrant children

Literature that examines possible heterogeneous effects of reading aloud to children of immigrants and children of native-born parents is scarce. The current study tries to address this scarcity by examining the effects of daily parent–child reading activities on the German vocabulary knowledge of children with (n=531) and without migration background (n=499) between the ages of three to five. Using propensity score matching (PSM), determinants of reading aloud daily to children are analyzed in the first step. Native parents are found to be more likely to read aloud daily to their children. Parents’ education, cultural capital and a high frequency of engaging parenting practices also predict the frequency of parent–child reading. Factors specific to immigrant families are the age of migration and the primary family language. The effect of reading aloud on the vocabulary skills of children is the focus of the second part of the analysis. Positive effects are found among children of immigrants and children of native-born parents. However, this positive effect is reduced over time for native children. Overall, reading aloud daily is most effective among children of immigrant families, using the language of the host country as the primary family language, and among parents with good receiving country language skills.

Public Assistance Use among U.S.-Born Children of Immigrants

U.S.-born children of immigrants may be less likely to receive some social services than are children of native-born parents if foreign-born parents who are themselves ineligible are less likely to apply on their children's behalf. We use retrospective data from a sample of about 2,400 low-income households in three U.S. cities to determine whether children with foreign-born caregivers are less likely than children with native-born caregivers to receive benefits from any of five programs over a two-year period: TANF, SSI, Food Stamps, Medicaid, and WIC. The most significant disparities between children of citizen and noncitizen caregivers are in TANF and food stamp use.

Mutual involvement and alienation in families of Holocaust survivors.

Clinical studies suggest that children of Holocaust survivors remain enmeshed with their families or alienated from them. To examine the applicability of these observations to a nonclinic population, questionnaire responses of a randomly selected community sample of adult children (ages 19-36) of Holocaust survivors (COS) were compared to those of children of other immigrants (COI), and of children of native-born parents (CON). The clinical findings were not supported in most of the wide range of possible manifestations of ties to or distance from the family. COS did, however, report more dissatisfaction with some aspects of the cross-sexed parents' disciplinary habits in the past. Male COS continued to feel that way in the present, wishing their mothers would be more permissive. Documented negative consequences of prolonged, severe victimization may affect only small segments of the second generation.

Behavioral disturbance in children of native-born and immigrant parents

To examine the mental health status of children whose parents were foreign-born and to determine if these youngsters have a special need for mental health services, this study compared the incidence of behavioral disturbance in 2,991 children who were native-born and white with 97 children of immigrant parents. General information and ratings on a behavior problem checklist were obtained from teachers. Based upon an analysis of variance procedure, the results revealed that subjects of Chinese, Japanese, or Southeast Asian descent exhibited significantly fewer disorders, such as conduct problems and inadequacy-immaturity, than children of native-born parents.