Parental Involvement in Immigrant Children's Education

Suet-ling Pong, Pennsylvania State University
Lingxin Hao, Johns Hopkins University
Erica Gardner, Pennsylvania State University

In this study we examine the patterns of involvement among parents of three immigrant generations, and investigate if this variation in parental involvement accounts for the differences in adolescents' school achievement by generation status. We have found that, unlike native parents, parents of the first generation immigrant children are more likely to adopt home-based involvement but not school-based involvement or networking with other parents. Our analysis of adolescents' math and English grades and vocabulary test scores provided mixed results on immigrant children's school adaptation. The level of parental involvement alone does not mediate the relationship between immigrant status and achievement. When the effectiveness of parental involvement is accounted for, the immigrant advantage in school grades disappears. However, immigrant children's disadvantage in vocabulary test scores remains.