Young Immigrant Children Research Articles

AN EARLY UNDERSTANDING OF MECHANISM OF RAINFALL: A STUDY EXAMINING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUNG MINORITY IMMIGRANT AND NATIVE-BORN CHILDREN

Preschool and lower grades of primary education (that is, before the age of 8) are a crucial period to attempt to reduce the educational performance gap between minority immigrant and native-born children. Regarding the science education field, it is believed that early exposure to scientific explanations on natural phenomena may positively influence to not only a better comprehension of the surrounding world but, also, the pupils’ success in grasping subsequent and more formal scientific concepts. In this respect, little research has been conducted to examine whether the learning process on the subject of the comprehension of natural phenomena varies significantly in the case of young minority immigrant children in comparison with the mainstream process covered by native-born children. In this vein, this study aims to study how 5 to 7 year old children understand the rainfall phenomenon (N=124) and to examine whether this comprehension differs according to the differences regarding the socio-cultural background of the children comprised in the sample. To that end, children’s answers to a semi-open questionnaire and their pictorial representations are analyzed and socio-cultural perspectives on the human cognitive development are utilized to assign meaning to the results obtained. Key words: cognitive development, early understanding, natural phenomena, science education.

Cross-Sectional Study of Unmet Mental Health Need in 5- to 7-Year Old Latino Children in the United States: Do Teachers and Parents Make a Difference in Service Utilization?

The aim of the study is to examine the rates of mental health service utilization in young Latino children of immigrants in relation to maternal and teacher reports of child mental health need. Specific knowledge is lacking about gaps in service utilization among young Latino children, the fastest growing and possibly the most underserved segment of the US child population. The associations of mental health service utilization (Service Assessment for Children and Adolescents) and mental health need (clinical levels of internalizing, externalizing, or total problems reported by mothers [Child Behavior Checklist] and teachers [Teacher's Report Form]) were examined in a community sample of young Latino children of immigrants (n = 228; mean age = 6) and compared across mothers' and teachers' responses. Mother-teacher agreement was also studied. Sixty-five children (28.5 %) had a mental health need; most (76.9 %) of these received no services. For all types of mental health need, service utilization was more likely when need was reported by mothers rather than teachers (p = .03). Teachers' reports were not associated with service utilization. Mother-teacher agreement was low for externalizing (r = .23; p ≤ 0.01) and total problems (r = .21; p ≤ 0.05), and nonsignificant for internalizing problems. This study is the first in the United States to document, in such a young Latino group, high rates of unmet need comparable to those among older Latino youth; low or no mother-teacher agreement on which children had a mental health need; low utilization of school-based services; and a lack of association between service utilization and teacher-reported mental health need-both for externalizing and internalizing problems. These findings suggest that schools are not effectively leveraging mental health services for young Latino children. Potential factors responsible for the findings are discussed.

Bilingualism Enriches the Poor

This study explores whether the cognitive advantage associated with bilingualism in executive functioning extends to young immigrant children challenged by poverty and, if it does, which specific processes are most affected. In the study reported here, 40 Portuguese-Luxembourgish bilingual children from low-income immigrant families in Luxembourg and 40 matched monolingual children from Portugal completed visuospatial tests of working memory, abstract reasoning, selective attention, and interference suppression. Two broad cognitive factors of executive functioning—representation (abstract reasoning and working memory) and control (selective attention and interference suppression)—emerged from principal component analysis. Whereas there were no group differences in representation, the bilinguals performed significantly better than did the monolinguals in control. These results demonstrate, first, that the bilingual advantage is neither confounded with nor limited by socioeconomic and cultural factors and, second, that separable aspects of executive functioning are differentially affected by bilingualism. The bilingual advantage lies in control but not in visuospatial representational processes.

Familial Effect on Child Poverty in Hong Kong Immigrant Families

This study investigated how family context affect poverty disparities between young children of immigrants from the Mainland China and children of local families whose parents were born in Hong Kong using 2006 bicensus data. 12,609 and 12,753 children of immigrant and local families were included in our data analyses. We find higher child poverty rates in immigrant families than in local families. Moreover, we found that family structure (single-parent vs. 2-parent), assimilation (first vs. second generation children of immigrant families), and parental human capital characteristics are significantly associated with the child poverty risk. Surprisingly, the impact of immigrant status on child poverty rates is stronger in 2-parent households than in single-parent households while child poverty declines associated with increasing assimilation defined by generational status of children are greater in 2-parent immigrant families than the corresponding declines in single-parent immigrant families. The implications of our results in intergenerational poverty are discussed.

Young immigrant children and their educational attainment

We analyze the determinants of reading literacy, mathematical skills and science skills of young immigrant children in The Netherlands. We find that these are affected by age at immigration and whether or not one of the parents is native Dutch.

Discrimination as a Contextualized Obstacle to the Preschool Teaching of Young Latino Children of Immigrants

This article explores how discrimination acts as a barrier to providing the highest quality education to young Latino children of immigrants. Preschool teachers' concerns emerged from focus group data with 40 teachers in four US cities, collected as part of the international Children Crossing Borders study of immigration and early childhood education. Using focus group data as well as a multi-sited comparative analytic model, this study details teachers' concerns about discrimination in terms of negative discourses and harsh education and immigration policies, and explains how these forms of discrimination affect preschool teachers' efforts to teach. The findings demonstrate why and how local and national forms of discrimination can prevent teachers from reaching their full capacity to teach young Latino children of immigrants successfully, while suggesting that educational inequities facing Latino immigrant families cannot be resolved by teacher education alone, but must include cultural, societal and political changes to how Latino families are treated in the USA.

Young Immigrant Children and Their Educational Attainment

We analyze the determinants of reading literacy, mathematical skills and science skills of young immigrant children in the Netherlands. We find that these are affected by age at immigration and whether or not one of the parents is native Dutch.

Young Immigrant Children and their Educational Attainment

We analyze the determinants of reading literacy, mathematical skills and science skills of young immigrant children in the Netherlands. We find that these are affected by age at immigration and whether or not one of the parents is native Dutch.

Cross-sectional associations of Spanish and English competence and well-being in Latino children of immigrants in kindergarten

The aim of this study is to examine within an ecological model the associations of dual language (Spanish/English) competences with the emotional and behavioral well-being of young children of immigrants in kindergarten. Latino children of immigrants (n = 228) from a public school-based community sample were assessed using standardized, comprehensive measures of Spanish and English oral language competence and normed teacher reports on five dimensions of emotional and behavioral well-being and school functioning (interpersonal, intrapersonal, and affective strengths, connection to family, and school functioning). Relevant contextual factors at home (maternal education, poverty, family structure) and school (teacher experience and practices, classroom composition), as well as child factors (non-verbal IQ, gender) were considered. Spanish and English competences accounted for moderate to large portions of variance in all dimensions of well-being. The contributions of child, home, and school variables to well-being were much smaller than language competence, and in most cases, not significant. Our findings suggest that dual language competence is critically associated with the emotional and behavioral well-being and school functioning of Latino children of immigrants.

Latino/a Immigrant Children's Drawings and Writings

This article shares children's drawings and writings reflecting immigration border-crossing experiences in south Texas, USA. The authors present the children's drawings as well as their narratives, relying on the work of Robert Coles and the authors' own intuitive Latina/Xicana lenses. The authors' intent is to pursue the possibility of future inquiry with ameliorative intentions for increasing numbers of young immigrant children.

Emergent literacy in children of immigrants coming from a primarily oral literacy culture

This study examined emergent literacy skills of 61 kindergarten children whose families had immigrated to Israel from a primarily oral society (Ethiopia). Three complementary perspectives were examined: developmental patterns, individual differences, and the contribution of parent literacy. The emergent literacy skills of children whose families were from Ethiopia were compared to those of 52 children coming from a primarily literate culture. The groups had acquired less complex Hebrew literacy skills in the same order, including phonological awareness, letter naming and consonant writing. However, the Ethiopian Israeli children were less proficient on various aspects of Hebrew language proficiency, and less familiar with aspects of cultural and environmental literacy. Most were also unable to speak or comprehend Amharic. In both groups, phonological awareness explained individual differences in letter naming, but vocabulary and syntactic knowledge added to the explained variance only in the Ethiopian Israeli group. Letter naming was associated with consonant writing in both groups. Hebrew oral and written language proficiency of Ethiopian Israeli mothers was positively correlated with literacy skills in their children. The results underscore the importance of distinguishing between less complex, modularized, aspects of emergent literacy and more complex literacy skills. Here the cumulative effects of poverty, oral home culture, parental inability to mediate language and literacy, and non-optimal conditions for becoming bilingual place young immigrant children at risk for academic failure early on.

Welfare and the Children of Immigrants: Transmission of Dependence or Investment in the Future?

The public concern that immigrant families might be using a disproportionate share of social benefits and transmitting some form of public dependency to their children, combined with the rising levels of immigrants entering the country, fueled the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996, which limited public assistance to many immigrant families. This paper uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to explore the association between exposure to welfare and young adult outcomes of high school graduation, college enrollment and labor force participation with a focus on parental nativity status as well as broad country of origin group. Results indicate a persistent negative association between welfare legacy and high school graduation; a negative association that is most pronounced for children of natives. Results also show the largest positive effect of welfare receipt among the most disadvantaged group, the young adult children of immigrants from Mexican and Central American countries. The main finding of this study suggests that the negative impacts of welfare receipt might be lessened and in some cases reversed among the young adults from immigrant families. Such findings challenge the common notion that immigrant families use welfare as a crutch across generations and raise serious concern about U.S. immigration and welfare policies.

Young American immigrant children's interpretations of popular culture

This article explores how young Korean immigrant girls (age five to eight) living in the United States interpreted American popular culture by discussing their interpretations of Disney animated films. In particular, it scrutinizes these girls' understanding of the idea of monarchy — in this case, the process of and the qualification for a ruler — in the films. In addition, this article looks closely at the girls' perspectives on what it means to be a princess in the films by connecting such perspectives to their sense of Korean ethnicity. Finally, it provides some suggestions and implication for researchers and early childhood educators.

Traversing the Challenges of Conducting Research with Young, Immigrant Children: The Case of Korean Children

Based on a qualitative study on young Korean immigrant children’s interpretation of American popular culture, this paper reflects on the researchers’ role by examining the research challenges faced. Prior to discussing the research obstacles in conducting the study, we begin with briefly describing its methodology and design. Next, we discuss the various obstacles we encountered when conducting our study and howwe attempted to overcome these dilemmas by discussing two major struggles during the research process: a) the relationships between the researchers and our young participants, and b) the cultural sensitivity that was needed in initially gaining permission from and working with the parents of our informants. It then illuminates how the researchers attempted to cope with such difficulties by rethinking a researchers’s role emphasizing the importance of cultural context in research. Finally, the paper provides some discussions and implications based on our research experiences.

The Hybrid Literacy Practices of Young Immigrant Children: Lessons Learned from an English-Only Preschool Classroom

This qualitative case study examines the literacy practices of an emerging bilingual child in a preschool classroom comprised mostly of recent Mexican immigrant students. It describes how political pressures after the passage of Proposition 203 in Arizona alter the language of instruction in the classroom, even when preschools do not have to conform to this mandate. Data collection included video and audio recordings of students' literacy practices during one school year, field notes, students' work samples, and interviews with students, teachers, and parents. Findings reveal that despite school-sanctioned English literacy practices, emerging bilingual children find ways to draw on hybrid practices and multiple literacies across two languages in student-centered social spaces. The paper concludes with the implications of the study on the education of young immigrant children.

Child Care and Multiculturalism: A Site of Governance Marked by Flexibility and Openness

This article explores how child care acts as a zone of governance for immigrant young children, enacted through discourses of multiculturalism implied to be flexible and open. It draws on an analysis of early childhood educators' interpretations and understandings of their own practices when working with racialized young immigrant children and families. It disentangles discourses of sensitivity, tolerance, and acceptance of difference that characterize Canadian multiculturalism, as well as discourses of flexibility presented as a condition for performing acts of sensitivity, acceptance, and tolerance when working with young immigrant children.

A Test of the Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families--Child Scale with Southeast Asian Americans

A common challenge facing immigrant families is intergenerational-intercultural conflict. Social workers are in need of an easy-to-use but psychometrically sound measure to assess this phenomenon and evaluate treatment effectiveness. The Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families (ICIF) Scale was created for this purpose. The ICIF has two parallel versions, one to assess the perspective of the parent (ICIF-Parent Scale) and the other to assess the perspective of the adolescent or young adult children of immigrants (ICIF-Child Scale, or ICIF-CS) of the intergenerational relationship. As Southeast Asian American refugee families are at increased risk of intergenerational-intercultural conflict, the current study assesses the psychometric properties of the ICIF-CS in 188 Southeast Asian American college students with refugee parents. The ICIF-CS was found to be a unidimensional measure with high internal reliability. Its construct validity was supported by its positive association with parental attachment and self-esteem and negative association with family conflict and depressive symptom level. KEY WORDS: intergenerational congruence; intergenerational relationship; migrant families; Southeast Asian Americans ********** At the dawn of the 21st century, more people than ever are migrating in search of a better life. This is particularly evident in the United States, where 12% of the population is non-native born (Mareh, 2005). Furthermore, one of every five American children grows up in an immigrant-headed household (Capps, Fix, Ost, Reardon-Anderson, & Passel, 2004). Among Asian Americans, the fastest growing ethnic minority group in the United States, two-thirds are either immigrants or refugees (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002). Consequently, almost nine in every 10 Asian American youths (88%) are raised by overseas-born parents (Zhou & Bankston, 1998). An extensive literature has shown that differential acculturation between migrant parents and their offspring results in intergenerational-intercultural conflict (Kwak, 2003; Sluzki, 1979). This conflict holds significant negative mental health consequences for both migrants and their children (Kwak). For social workers to serve such families effectively, psychometrically sound measures of intergenerational conflict are needed. The Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families-Child and Parent Scales (ICIF-CS and ICIF-PS, respectively) were constructed to address this gap in the literature (Ying, Lee, & Tsai, 2004; Ying & Tracy, 2004). The ICIF assesses intergenerational congruence across various domains and satisfaction with the parent-child relationship from the perspective of both the adolescent or young adult child (ICIF-CS) and the immigrant parent (ICIF-PS), regardless of culture of origin. Earlier research has demonstrated the psychometric properties of these scales in Chinese American immigrant parents (Ying & Tracy) and adolescent children of immigrants (Ying et al., 2004). The current study extends the literature on the use of the ICIF with other migrant groups by focusing on Southeast Asian refugee families. Recent research has documented the intergenerational transmission of trauma in Southeast Asian refugee families where traumatized parents form insecure attachments with their children, who in turn exhibit lowered competence and psychological well-being (Han, 2006). Thus, it is particularly important to assess intergenerational conflict in this population to assist social work interventions. INTERGENERATIONAL-INTERCULTURAL CONFLICT IN MIGRANT FAMILIES The development of intergenerational-intercultural conflict in migrant families occurs secondarily to differential acculturation between nonnative-born parents and their migrant or U.S.-born children (Sluzki, 1979). Having been socialized in their culture of origin, adult migrants usually prefer to retain those values and acculturate slowly to majority U. …

The Living Conditions of U.S.-Born Children of Mexican Immigrants in Unmarried Families

Recent research has brought attention to the hardship faced by children of immigrants in the United States, particularly in the Mexican-origin population. In this study, the authors are concerned with the extent to which U.S.-born children of Mexican immigrants who live in unmarried families may face exceptional risks. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, the authors find that young children of Mexican immigrants in unmarried families face significant disadvantages on a variety of levels compared with children of U.S.-born mothers. Mexican immigrant mothers have significantly lower levels of education and employment and much higher rates of poverty, as well as less access to social services. Although characterized by low rates of low birth weight and more positive maternal health behaviors, their poor socioeconomic and social service profile suggests that even when healthy at the starting gate, they may potentially face poor outcomes during childhood and beyond.

Links between parenting styles, parent–child academic interaction, parent–school interaction, and early academic skills and social behaviors in young children of English-speaking Caribbean immigrants

This study examined the influence of parenting styles, parent–child academic involvement at home, and parent–school contact on academic skills and social behaviors among kindergarten-age children of Caribbean immigrants. Seventy immigrant mothers and fathers participated in the study. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that fathers’ authoritarian parenting style was negatively associated with and father–school contact was positively associated with receptive skills, vocabulary, and composite scores over and above that of mothers’ contributions in these areas. Fathers’ authoritative parenting style and father–child academic interaction at home were positively related to children's social behaviors. Mothers’ authoritarian parenting style was negatively and mother–school contact was positively associated with children's social behaviors. Analyses indicated that fathers’ parenting carried the weight of influence over mothers’ parenting for facilitating both child academic skills and social behaviors. The roles of parenting styles, parent–academic activities, and parent–school contacts in early schooling are discussed.

Building Bridges Between Cultures: A Literacy Program for Immigrant Latino Children

In the fall of 2000, a pilot program was established in Springfield, Missouri to provide pre-literacy activities to young immigrant Latino children. While the original intent was to provide opportunities for Early Childhood majors at Southwest Missouri State University to learn to present pre-literacy learning sessions, the program's expansion has resulted in a different but very worthwhile focus. It has evolved into a program that attempts to fulfill needs at the level of the individual as well as the community. First, we wish to spark the interest of these children in books and literacy-related activities in order to enhance their entire educational experience. We also want to assist in the integration of this immigrant population into the community at large by providing a conduit for intercultural interactions between the growing Latino community and the existing (primarily Anglo) inhabitants of Springfield. Traditionally, Southwest Missouri has experienced low cultural and ethnic diversity; therefore, few community members in Springfield have had the opportunity to interact with those from different cultural backgrounds, nor given thought to the benefits, issues, and challenges brought by the increasing immigration and diversity.