Meta-Analysis on the relation between acculturation and educational outcomes among immigrants

• In Event: 1-075 - Immigrant Youth Development: Their Psychological Well-Being and Educational Outcomes

Integrative Statement

There have been few meta-analytic efforts to understand educational outcomes among immigrant youth (for exception, see Duong, Badaly, Liu, Schwartz, & McCarty, 2016). One main hypothesis tested in the literature on immigrant students is the notion of immigrant paradox (García Coll and Marks (2014), which argues that first generation immigrants perform better compared to their more acculturated peers. At the same time, there is a competing argument that put the focus on acculturation as a positive force in the lives of immigrant origin youth (Kao & Tienda, 1995) and as such expects a positive relation between acculturation and academic performance. Several narrative review of this literature shows strong support for either of these viewpoints and yet there has not been a systematic review that test these hypotheses. This meta-analytic review is an attempt to address that need in the literature. Specifically, this meta-analytic review was designed to assess the relation between acculturation and educational outcomes (grades, tests, GPA, and school engagement). This meta-analysis will address the following research questions:

1. What is the relation between acculturation and educational outcomes?
2. Should this relation exist, does it confirm or disconfirm the immigrant-paradox hypothesis in the area of immigrant-origin youth’s educational outcomes?
3. How is the acculturation-education relation moderated by sample-based characteristics (e.g., developmental period, ethnicity, and publication type) and methodological characteristics (e.g., type of educational outcome, type of acculturation measure).

Strict inclusion criteria was followed to select studies for the meta-analysis. We employed a computer-based literature search in four phases to identify relevant studies for this review. The current meta-analysis contains a total of 91 studies—53 studies published in peer-reviewed journal and 38 dissertations.

A total of 139 independent effect sizes were included in the analysis. Of the 139 independent effect sizes of educational outcomes, 46 represent operationalization of tests (i.e., English, math and science), 60 represent operationalization of grades (i.e., GPA, grades from English, math, science), and 33 represent operationalization of school engagement (i.e., future aspirations, academic engagement). The average effect size for the fixed effects model was .050 with a 95% confidence interval of .043 to .057 and it was significantly different from zero (p < .001). The average effect size for the random effects model was .047 with a 95% confidence interval of .022 to .072 and it was significantly different from zero (p < .01). The average effect size for all the studies suggest that as immigrants acculturate to their new country, their academic performance gets better and school engagement increases. Also, the Q-value for the analysis was significant, indicating that the correlations included in the analyses are heterogeneous, Q = 1489.75, p < .001. The analysis on the sample characteristics suggest that ethnicity and publication type were the significant sample-based factors in explaining the heterogeneity of the measure effect sizes within this sample. Methodological moderation analyses were conducted for type of educational outcome and type of acculturation measure. Detailed results from the moderation analyses will be presented.

Authors

• Selcuk Sirin, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Esther Sin, New York University
  Presenting Author