Native-born Families Research Articles

Diversity in Schools: Immigrants and the Educational Performance of U.S.-Born Students

Abstract We study the effect of exposure to immigrants on the educational outcomes of U.S.-born students, using a unique dataset combining population-level birth and school records from Florida. This research question is complicated by the substantial school selection of U.S.-born students, especially among White and comparatively affluent students, in response to the presence of immigrant students in the school. We propose a new identification strategy, comparing sibling outcomes with the inclusion of family fixed effects, to partial out the unobserved non-random selection of native-born families into schools. We find that the presence of immigrant students has a positive effect on the academic achievement of U.S.-born students, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Moreover, the presence of immigrants does not negatively affect the performance of affluent U.S.-born students, who typically show a higher academic achievement compared to immigrant students. We provide suggestive evidence on potential channels.

Linking IEP Status to Parental Involvement for High School Students of First-Generation and Native-Born Families

As educators and policymakers increasingly use parental involvement as a mechanism to increase student achievement, scholars know surprisingly little about the disparities in frequencies of parental involvement for first-generation immigrant compared to native-born parents as well as how involvement may differ for parents of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Using HSLS:2009, we compared parental involvement of first-generation immigrant parents and native-born parents of high school students with and without IEPs. Our descriptive results indicate that first-generation parents exhibit lower frequencies of school-based involvement compared to native-born parents. In our propensity score matching analysis, we found that IEP status is associated with an increase in school-based parental involvement for both first-generation immigrant and native-born families. We also found that IEP status was negatively associated with academic socialization for both first-generation immigrant and native-born families.

Immigrant status and the social returns to academic achievement in adolescence

ABSTRACT Social scientists have long debated whether high-achieving students of color are socially sanctioned. This discussion has rarely focused on immigrant students, who are exceptionally diverse in their educational performance and face challenges in social integration at school. This article assesses whether the effect of academic achievement on U.S. adolescents’ popularity among peers varies by immigrant status. Further, we investigate whether the same pattern holds for immigrant students across racial/ethnic groups. While theoretical frameworks led us to expect that some immigrant groups would be socially punished for their school achievement, we did not find evidence for a negative effect of achievement (GPA) on popularity (number of alters nominating ego as a friend) for any group. Instead, the effect of achievement on popularity is positive but smaller among second-generation and foreign-born students than among white students from native-born families. This social penalty is observed across Black and most Hispanic immigrant subgroups, applies to some Asian immigrant subgroups, and does not apply to white immigrant students.

The immigrant paradox and math self-concept: An SES-of-origin-country hypothesis

The immigrant paradox is the phenomenon where recent immigrants have better outcomes than individuals from native-born families. Although limited past research has shown the paradox to exist for math self-concept, neither its exact nature nor a theoretical explanation for its existence have been reported. Using Australian cohort data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 (N = 12,551) and 2012 (N = 14,481), we first establish that immigrant students have higher math self-concepts than native students, controlling for gender and absolute parental socioeconomic status (SES), and show that it is similar to—albeit weaker than—the expectation-achievement gap. We then provide an SES-of-origin-country hypothesis as a contextual explanation for this effect; we show that the immigrant paradox for both math self-concept and educational expectations substantially reduces when accounting for parents' SES relative to their country-of-origin. Our findings suggest that the paradox for math self-concept and educational expectations may partly result from immigrant parents’ socioeconomic advantage in their home countries.

To Unfold the Immigrant Paradox: Maltreatment Risk and Mental Health of Racial-Ethnic Minority Children.

Children of immigrants are often considered to be at increased risk of mental health problems due to families' immigration-related stress and perceived discrimination and prejudice from the host country. However, many studies found them to have better developmental outcomes than children with native-born parents in the U.S. This study aims to unfold this paradoxical phenomenon using data from a population-based cohort of children born in large U.S. cities. Specifically, we investigated differences in mental health outcomes between children of immigrants and those with native-born parents, stratified by children's race-ethnicity. We also explored the mediating role of child maltreatment risk in the association of parental nativity status and race-ethnicity with children's mental health. Our findings supported the immigrant paradox, with better self-reported and parent-reported internalizing and externalizing outcomes in Hispanic and Black children of immigrants than their same race-ethnicity peers and White children of native-born. Such immigrant-native variations were partially explained by parents' physically and psychologically abusive behaviors. Hispanic and Black children with immigrant parents were less likely to be physically or psychologically abused than their peers of native-born at ages 4–5, which translated into mental health advantages of children of immigrants at age 9. Our findings shed light on future research to further clarify the mechanism underlying different parenting practices between same race-ethnicity immigrants and native-born families so that culturally responsive interventions can be developed to safeguard racial-ethnic minority children's mental health.

The intersection of class, race, gender and generation in shaping Latinas’ sport experiences

Latina women, a growing demographic in the United States, are largely absent from literature examining how race, ethnicity, and gender influence sport participation. This research explores how those factors intersect with socioeconomic status and generational status to influence how and when they joined organized sport, which sports they chose, and their perceptions of family support and belonging. Semi-structured interviews with 31 college-educated Latinas who played interscholastic high school sports in the US demonstrate that social class and nativity influence sport choices through habitus. Middle class and native-born families have resources to access organized sport and prioritize participation. Their daughters begin sport at an early age and are well-supported in their athletic careers. Lower-class and immigrant families place a lower value on organized sport and have fewer resources to access opportunities. Class and generation also intersect with gender, race, and ethnicity to influence when women join organized sports and how they make sense of their athletic participation.

Words and Hugs: Emotional Support for Latino and Asian Children of Immigrants Compared to their White Counterparts with Native-Born Parentage

Previous research highlights parental psychological and personal resources as determinants of children’s emotional support. Less emphasis is placed on the social forces that may be equally important in shaping children’s emotional sustenance. Consequently, I examine the case of Latino and Asian children of immigrants, leveraging instrumental (advice) and affective (cheering up) emotional domains. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 and quantitative methods, I find that Latino children of immigrants are less likely receive advice from their parents compared to white children with native-born parentage and Asian children with immigrant parentage, and I find that Latino and Asian children of immigrants are less likely to report cheering up from their parents compared to their white counterparts with native-born parentage. In addition, I find that, compared to whites in native-born families, Latino children of immigrants are more likely to receive emotional support from relatives (as opposed to parents), and Latino and Asian children of immigrants are more likely to receive emotional support from siblings (as opposed to parents). Although differences in parental resources explain some of these propensities, gaps remain, especially in the case of cheering up. I argue that parental resources and racialized discursive frames that dictate “normal” family functioning, including emotional performance, shape emotional support receipt differences between white children with native-born parentage and Latino and Asian children of immigrants, which can be detrimental for Latino and Asian children and may be implicated in deepening racial/ethnic inequalities.

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.

The associations between national identity and adjustment: What can we learn from autobiographical narratives?

This study examined the interplay between national identity, autobiographical narratives on national identity and the adjustment of immigrant and majority groups in Israel. Participants were 193 Jewish Israelis (63.68% female; mean age 29.54 years); 51.29% immigrated from the Former Soviet Union and 48.71% were from native-born families. Participants reported the centrality of and private regard for national identity and provided autobiographical narratives on peak and nadir experiences of national identity. Narratives’ topics and themes of agency and communion were coded. Participants also reported positive adjustment (self-esteem, life satisfaction); negative adjustment (depression, anxiety symptoms); and civic engagement (voting, consumption of news about Israel). The immigrant group showed lower centrality of national identity, less positive adjustment, and lower civic engagement than the majority group. The groups significantly varied in narrative topics. Private regard for national identity was associated with better adjustment of both groups. Agency in peak narratives was associated with higher civic engagement of immigrants. Agency in nadir narratives was associated with more positive adjustment and less negative adjustment of immigrants and with higher civic engagement of both groups. The findings indicate that national identity is important in the adjustment of both immigrant and majority groups. It extends prior research by documenting the unique role of autobiographical experiences of national identity in adjustment.

US Immigration, Residential Queuing, and Intergenerational Spatial Mobility: The Implications for White and Black Native-Born Families

US Immigration, Residential Queuing, and Intergenerational Spatial Mobility: The Implications for White and Black Native-Born Families

Protective ethnicity: how Armenian immigrants’ extracurricular youth organisations redistribute cultural capital to the second-generation in Los Angeles

ABSTRACTResearch shows the children of educationally-select immigrant groups benefit from a cultural advantage that allows them to realise higher educational outcomes than scholars would predict based on their parental education level alone. Among native-born families, childrearing practices, such as participation in youth extracurricular activities outside of school and home, have been shown to guide youth educational outcomes. But scholars have not fully explained how these cultural practices matter for the children of immigrants. Based on comparative ethnographic research, I examine how Armenian immigrant parents of divergent education levels converge in their desire to cultivate ethnic identification among their children by enrolling them in youth extracurricular activities found in ethnic community organisations. I argue that although working-class immigrants bring their children to these organisations to cultivate their children’s ethnic identification, they also unknowingly expose them to the organisationally embedded cultural capital offered at these sites that youth later draw on for their educational mobility. I conclude that cultivating ethnic identification among educationally-select immigrants functions as a protective social factor because it extends unanticipated material gains to the children of working class coethnics, a phenomenon I call protective ethnicity.

The Home Environments of Adolescents Whose Parents Legally Immigrated to the United States: Findings from the New Immigrant Survey

Adolescent well-being depends on the quality of their experiences at home. Data from the New Immigrant Survey were used to describe the home environments of 982 children ages 10–17 whose parents legally immigrated to the United States. Thirty-four indicators of home conditions were clustered into 5 domains: (1) discipline and socio-emotional support, (2) learning materials, (3) enriching experiences, (4) family activities, and (5) expectations. Results revealed variation in how frequently adolescents experienced each home environmental condition. As expected, there were differences in the likelihood an adolescent would have most—but not all—experiences connected with home life based on parents’ level of education. The home experiences documented for children of recent legal immigrants were similar to those documented for children of native-born families in other studies.

Home environments of infants from immigrant families in the United States: findings from the new immigrant survey.

Data from the New Immigrant Survey were used to describe the home environments of 638 children ages birth to 3 years whose parents legally immigrated to the United States. Thirty-two indicators of home conditions were clustered into four domains: discipline and socioemotional in support, learning materials, enriching experiences, and family activities. Results revealed variation in how frequently infants from every country (Mexico, El Salvador, India, Philippines) and region (East Asia, Europe, Caribbean, Africa) studied experienced each home environmental condition. There were differences between countries and regions on many indicators as well as differences based on parents' level of education. The experiences documented for children of recent legal immigrants were similar to those documented for children of native-born families in other studies.

Net effects of poverty on welfare use and dependency among children by family immigration and citizenship statuses

Abstract The fact that immigrant families used welfare at a disproportionately high level called for national welfare and immigration reforms in the mid-1990s. This study examined the net effects of poverty on welfare use and dependency among U.S.-born children by family immigration and citizenship statuses in pre- and post-welfare reform years. The analyses found that children in poor immigrant families were less likely to use welfare than children in poor native-born families in 1995, 2000, and 2005. In 2010, however, children in poor immigrant families and poor native-born families had similar likelihoods of welfare use. Children in poor noncitizen families were in general less likely to be dependent on welfare than children in poor naturalized families. Although children in poor naturalized families had a lower likelihood of welfare dependency in a pre-welfare reform year, they had similar or higher likelihoods of dependency in post-reform years, compared to children in native-born families.

Immigrant–Native Differences in Child Health: Does Maternal Education Narrow or Widen the Gap?

Abundant U.S. research documents an "immigrant advantage" in children's physical health. This article extends consideration to the United Kingdom, permitting examination of a broader group of immigrants from disparate regions of the world and different socioeconomic backgrounds. Drawing on birth cohort data (ages 0-5) from both countries (n=4,139 and n=13,381), the analysis considers whether the children of immigrants have a physical and mental health advantage around the beginning of elementary school, and whether advantage is more pronounced among low-educated populations. Findings indicate that the children of immigrants are not uniformly healthier than those in native-born families. Rather, there is heterogeneity in the immigrant advantage across outcomes, and evidence of both greater advantage and disadvantage among children in low-educated immigrant families.

Factors associated with intensiveness of use of child preventive health services in Taiwan: a comparative study between cross-cultural immigrant families and native-born families

Objectives: To compare intensiveness of use of child preventive health services (CPHS) between cross-cultural immigrant families and native-born families in Taiwan and to explore factors associated with differences in intensiveness of CPHS use. Design: Cross-cultural immigrant families were defined as families where the mother was an immigrant from another southeast Asian country. In native-born families, both parents were Taiwanese-born. Data were collected from 318 immigrant mothers and 340 native-born mothers of children aged 7 years or younger in a cross-sectional survey in central Taiwan. A social determinants framework of health inequities was constructed, and ordinal logistic regression models were used to examine the effect of four domains of intermediary determinants on the relationship between family type and underuse of CPHS: CPHS-related factors, medical-related factors, maternal acculturation factors, and sociodemographic/socioeconomic characteristics. Results: Cross-cultural immigrant families were less likely to intensively use CPHS than native-born families. This difference appeared to be mediated by the greater likelihood of having an older child or a lower educated father in cross-cultural families. Conclusion: Findings of this study highlight the importance of promoting health behaviors and combating health inequities and social inequalities for cross-cultural immigrant families in Taiwan from a sociodemographic/socioeconomic and political context.

Internationally Comparable Indicators for Children of Immigrants

The number and diversity of immigrants to affluent countries has risen greatly during recent decades, with low and middle income countries becoming increasingly prominent in the mix of immigrant origins. Immigrants often are in the family building stage of life, bringing one or more children along to the settlement country and bearing additional children after they arrive. As a consequence, although considerable public attention, and often controversy, has focused on the rising share of adults in affluent countries who are immigrants, even larger is the share of all children who are children of immigrants. Yet not until 2009 did basic, internationally comparable indicators become available to measure the number of children in immigrant families living in a range of affluent countries, and to assess their family and socioeconomic circumstances compared to children in native-born families. The articles in this special edition of Child Indicators Research present an overview of these comparative results, as well as more in depth analyses for six countries. Australia and the United States have long been recognized as settled mainly through mass migrations, and these countries continue to receive many immigrants. Results from the most recent census in Australia indicate that one-third (33%) of children have at least one immigrant parent, and recent results for the United States indicate that nearly one-fourth (24%) are children of immigrants. The proportions also are very high, however, in other countries included in the recent comparative study, at four-in-ten for Switzerland (39%), one-in-four for Germany (26%), one-infive for Netherlands (22%), and one-in-six in France (17%) and the United Kingdom (16%). Even in Italy, which historically experienced little immigration, one-in-ten children (10%) live with an immigrant parent as of the 2001 census, and an article in this volume indicates that this proportion is likely to have grown substantially since that time (Mencarini 2010). Recent immigration differs from historic trends in a critically important way. European countries were the primary source of early mass migrations. But in recent

Children of Immigrants: Family and Socioeconomic Indicators for Affluent Countries

Affluent countries around the world are experiencing an unprecedented demographic shift that involves rapid change in the ethnic composition of the population, due to large scale immigration from low and middle income countries, combined with the rapid aging of the non-immigrant population. Because these immigrants and their children often differ from the non-immigrant population in physical appearance, language, religion, and culture, increasing attention is focusing on the integration and inclusion of these groups. To provide a framework for interpreting the new indicators presented in this article, we draw on ideas recently set forth by the European Union. These efforts provide a broad and comprehensive framework for discussing indicators in this article pertaining to the demographic circumstances of children in immigrant families, and to various aspects of their integration, including language, civic participation, education, employment, and housing. While indicators presented here do not directly measure integration and inclusion, they do portray the lives of children in immigrant families compared with the lives of children in native-born families along civic, social, and economic dimensions that are relevant to the assessment of integration and inclusion, shedding light on the extent to which children in immigrant families in the eight settlement countries covered in this study have access to the resources necessary to participate fully in the societies of their adopted homelands. The eight countries included in this study are Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Life circumstances and public policies for young children in immigrant families

Young children, birth through eight, are more diverse than other age groups in the United States. They are more likely to be first- or second-generation immigrants and, as a consequence, more likely to belong to racial-ethnic groups originating outside European nations. Many also live with parents whose heritage language is not English. For these reasons, children in immigrant families merit special attention by policy-makers, program administrators, and others who have responsibility for assuring that the young children of today become competent students, workers, citizens, and parents in the years ahead. The development of effective policies and programs for all children and families depends on having information about their life circumstances, including their family composition, education, work, income, and housing, and for immigrants, also their country of origin, citizenship, and language skills. This article presents new results from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2005, 2006, and 2007, reflecting important life circumstances of young children in immigrant families, compared to those in native-born families. We present new population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau, which highlight the increasingly important role that children of immigrants will play in the economy and civil society during the coming decades. We then discuss implications for the design and implementation of effective policies and programs.

School-Age Children in Immigrant Families: Challenges and Opportunities for America's Schools

Background/Context By the year 2030, when the baby boom generation born between 1946 and 1964 will be in the retirement ages, 72% of the elderly will be non-Hispanic Whites, compared with 56% for working-age adults, and 50% for children. As the predominantly White baby boomers reach retirement, they will increasingly depend for economic support on the productive activities and civic participation of working-age adults who are members of racial and ethnic minorities and, in many cases, children of immigrants. To prepare these young people for lives as productive workers and engaged citizens, we need to pay more attention to creating conditions that will foster their educational success. The profound shift taking place in the composition of the school-age population has implications for schools. Purpose/Objective/Research Questions/Focus of Study This article presents a demographic overview of school-age children in immigrant families and compares them with their peers in native-born families. After tracing the shift in the national origins of children of immigrants that has taken place over the past century, we consider the new challenges and opportunities presented to the education system by the socioeconomic, cultural, and religious diversity of this new and growing population of students and by their presence in a growing number of suburban and rural, as well as urban, communities. Population/Participants/Subjects This research uses data from Census 2000 to study children in immigrant families who have at least one foreign-born parent compared with children in native-born families who were born in the United States to U.S.-born parents. Research Design This research is a secondary analysis of data from Census 2000. Conclusions/Recommendations Immigration is transforming the demography of America. In less than three decades, a majority of children are likely to belong to race-ethnic minorities who are Hispanic, Black, Asian, or another non-White race, mainly because of immigration and births to immigrants and their descendants. The educational success achieved by immigrant groups, and their subsequent economic productivity, is important not only to the groups themselves but also to the broad American population because these groups will compose an increasingly important segment of the U.S. labor force during the next few decades; this labor force will be supporting the predominantly White baby boom generation throughout their retirement years. As we increasingly become a nation of minorities, with no single race-ethnic group in the majority, the educational success of all children, especially the rapidly growing population of children in immigrant families, merits increasing attention from teachers, school administrators, and public officials.