Assimilation Factors as Proxies for Colonial Mentality: Their Effects on Filipinos/Filipino Americans' Academic Performance

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Abstract

Filipinos and Filipino Americans lag behind their Asian American counterparts in terms of college enrollment rates. Filipino scholars suggest that the group’s barriers to wellbeing and success may be rooted in internalized oppression in the form of colonial mentality. While colonial mentality and its effects on mental health has been largely studied in psychology, the relationship has been underexplored within sociology and the education context. In this study, I address the gap by exploring the relationship between assimilation factors as proxies for colonial mentality and academic performance among Filipino and Filipino American students using OLS regression analysis based on the data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey (1999-2006). I argue that colonial mentality negatively influences academic performance among the group. I found that while there is a significant and positive correlation between students’ view of U.S. exceptionalism and high school GPA, the direction of the relationship changed when the interaction between acculturation and students’ view of U.S. exceptionalism was examined. New immigrant students who have a more positive view of U.S. exceptionalism tend to lose their academic advantage and attain lower high school GPA compared to their U.S.-born and long-term resident peers. This study suggests that the perception of U.S. exceptionalism as an indicator of colonial mentality appears to have a promoting effect on the education outcome of long-term residents and U.S.-born students but an adverse effect on the academic performance of new immigrant Filipino students.

Author

• Machienvee Lammey, University of New Mexico