Perceived school environments, perceived discrimination, and school performance among children of Mexican immigrants

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Abstract

This secondary analysis of 578 Mexican-American adolescents participating in the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study examined the relative influence of several correlates of perceived discrimination. It finds that perceptions of school climates are strongly and consistently related to perceptions of discrimination and school performance. These findings are consistent with a growing body of educational literature that highlights the protective benefits of supportive teaching climates.

Introduction

An accumulating body of literature focuses on correlates of perceived discrimination among minority adolescents (Szalacha et al., 2003). A feature of this research is its focus on individual psychological processes. Notably, this emphasis is loosely coupled with current ecological conceptualizations of developmental processes of minority youth (García Coll et al., 1996). The influence of environmental factors, particularly those related to school, have been overlooked despite their developmental salience (Helms, 2002, Helms, 2003, Steinberg, 2001) and a growing body of research that links perceptions of discrimination or the threat of discrimination within school environments to school attachment and performance (Ogbu, 2003, Rumbaut, 1994, Steele, 1997, Weinstein, 2002).

The current study utilizes an ecologically based framework to integrate findings in the literature by simultaneously exploring the influences of individual, family, and environmental factors on perceptions discrimination and school-related competencies among a large sample of Mexican and Mexican-American youth. Specifically, we ask:

  • (1)

    To what extent do youth reports of their school environments relate to perceptions of discrimination, net of other key correlates identified in the literature?

  • (2)

    Do perceptions of school environments and discrimination relate to future school related competencies, including grades and continued school attachment?

Three key rationales for studying perceived discrimination exist. First, it is a relatively common phenomenon among minority youth and young adults. Second, it is a powerful correlate of psychological well being, especially in “real-life” (versus experimental) settings (Szalacha et al., 2003). Sellers and Shelton (2003), in their longitudinal study of perceived discrimination among African-American college students, find that perceived discrimination occurred prior to and predicted elevated scores on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Inventory, an effect explained through stress reaction (Sellers, Caldwell, Schmeelk-Cone, & Zimmerman, in press). Similar relationships have been found—albeit mostly with cross-sectional studies—with younger and more racially/ethnically diverse samples and using other measures of psychological distress and well-being (Brown et al., 2000, Fisher et al., 2000, Rumbaut, 1994, Simons et al., 2002, Szalacha et al., 2003). Perceived discrimination has also recently been linked to violent behavior (Caldwell, Kohn-Wood, Scheelk-Cone, Chavous, & Zimmerman, 2004) and substance use (Gibbons, Gerrard, Cleveland, Wils, & Brody, 2004) in African-American youth. Third, understanding relations between perceptions of discrimination and school performance has been identified as a key priority in both developmental and education literatures (Helms, 2002, Helms, 2003). In summary, perceptions of discrimination are linked to or thought to be related to various psychological and academic competencies among minority youth.

Section snippets

Conceptual framework

Cynthia García Coll and her colleagues (1996) articulate a framework for studying developmentally related outcomes of minority youth. Based in part on Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological theory, this framework explicitly attempts to consider the influence of six domains of factors on youth competencies. These domains include variables related to (1) social position (e.g., race, class and gender), (2) social stratification (e.g., discrimination), (3) promoting or inhibiting environments (e.g.,

Defining perceived discrimination

Dion (2003) underscores the importance of clearly distinguishing the difference between perceptions of discrimination and actual discrimination. Despite the conceptual significance of distinguishing these constructs, it is important to note that both are thought to be salient experiences for minority group members. As Dion and Kawakami (1996, p. 1) note,

Whether such perceptions can be taken as the “real” or actual amount of discrimination experienced by different ethnic groups and their members

Correlates of perceived racial and ethnic discrimination

Previous research on perceived discrimination among adolescents and youth identifies several groups of correlates. These correlates may be classified as sociodemographic, developmental, psychological, and identity-related, and socialization-based.

Salience of school environments

Interestingly, the literature on perceived discrimination among adolescents and young adults does not overlap with education literature that seeks to explain persistent achievement gaps between certain subgroups of minority adolescents. From the perspective of the García Coll et al. (1996) framework, the literature on perceived discrimination places relatively less emphasis on the potential influences of promoting and inhibiting environments. Anthropologist John Ogbu (1993) argued that youth

Perceived discrimination, school environments, and Mexican and Mexican-American youth

The last two decades have witnessed enormous growth in the Latino student population (Orfield, 2002). Recent estimates find that the Latino drop-out rate is four times larger than that of White and twice as large of that of African-American students (United States Department of Education, 2003). This is especially true for Mexican-origin students, who constitute the majority of the Latino student population (Ruiz de Velasco & Fix, 2000). While not focused specifically on perceived

Overview of the present study

Capitalizing on a secondary data analysis of a longitudinal study, which included multiple measures of discrimination as well as multiple indicators of key correlates of perceived discrimination, the current study has three major aims. First, it hopes to advance research on perceived discrimination by simultaneously considering the relative influence of multiple correlates of perceived discrimination. Most existent research considers the influence of relatively small sets of psychological

The children of immigrants longitudinal study

This study is a secondary analysis of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). This study targeted “second-generation” eighth and ninth grade children of foreign-born parents in San Diego, CA, and Miami/Fort Lauderdale, FL (n=5262). Adolescents were either born in or immigrated early to the United States. Data collection occurred in two waves—1992 and 1995—coinciding with these youths' entry into and pending graduation from high school. Follow-up surveys were

Current discrimination by teachers

The first column of Table 1 presents logistic regression results predicting whether a student perceives being discriminated by teachers at Wave 2, controlling for prior perceptions of discrimination at Wave 1. Student perceptions of poor school quality were associated with increased odds of perceiving discrimination by teachers. Prior self-esteem and parent perceptions of neighborhood discrimination were also positively associated with this perception. On the other hand, lengths of stay of 5–9

Discussion

The overall purpose of this study was twofold. It sought to examine whether Mexican-origin youth reports of their school environments relate to perceptions of discrimination, net of other key correlates identified in the literature. In addition, it asked whether perceptions of school environments and discrimination mattered to later school performance.

The findings indicate that the prior literature has overlooked the potential impact of both perceived social stratification and environmental

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