1. Being Prepared, Getting in Trouble and Other Student Misbehaviors: A Comparison of Immigrants and the Native-Born
Stephanie Ewert
Department of Sociology
University of Washington
UWBHS Conference
10/19/07

2. Research Context
In spite of lower socioeconomic status, immigrant students do well academically
Possible interpretations
Traditional immigrant cultures stress education
Segmented assimilation
Model minorities
-anomaly to address: immigrants do well despite minority status and low ses
-immigrants have high aspirations, high grades, high test scores, lower drop out rates
Interpretation 1: immigrants view ed as means of upward mobility and are optimistic about future -> high aspirations and achievement
Interp 2: avoid risks of downward mobility by isolating from broader community and keep kids from being fully assimilated; maintain ties to ethnic community so has a lot of social capital available
-Model minorities: academic achievement of Asians drives the findings for immigrants (Asian thing not immigrant thing)

3. Disciplinary Behavior and Academic Achievement
Poverty
Behavior
Race/ethnicity
-background factors influence behavior, academic achievement
-association between behavior and academic achievement; reciprocal relationship that reinforces itself
Family Structure
Academic Achievement
Peer Influences

4. Does immigrant generation affect behavior?
Poverty
Academic
Achievement
Race/ethnicity
Behavior
-does the model discussed previously hold for immigrants?
-academic behavior becomes mediating variable
-take out peer influence
-add immigrant generation
-do behavioral outcomes vary by immigrant generation?
Immigrant
Generation

5. Data UW Beyond High School Survey, 2002-2005 8,501 high school seniors
Immigrant generation: 7% first generation, 8% 1.5 generation, 17% second generation
Race/ethnicity: 16% Asian, 8% Hispanic, 13% black, 5% American Indian, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander
Students with most extreme behavioral problems not in sample due to drop out
-to examine whether immigrant generation affects levels of misbehavior, use data from BHS
-break Asian category down into smaller subgroups for some analyses
-data doesn’t have most extreme behavioral problems because these students dropped out or were expelled => my results underestimate effects of misbehavior

6. Key Independent Variables
Immigrant Generation
Race/ethnicity 1
1.5 2 3
Total
Hispanic
11%
16%
33%
40%
100%
Black 3% 5%
12%
80%
Asian
20%
25%
44%
Am Ind, Haw, Pac Isl. 6% 8%
19%
67%
White
86%
-black and white students mainly 3+ generation
-Asians have a lot of 1st and 2nd generation
-Hispanics have a lot of 1st and 2nd generation as well

7. Levels of Misbehavior Serious Intermediate Moderate
-assume there is a continuum of misbehavior from small, insignificant acts, to bigger and more serious bumps and eventually on to huge bumps with lots of trouble
-I construct 3 separate measures of misbehavior to capture each of these levels
Moderate

8. INDEX OF BEING UNPREPARED FOR CLASS
Measure of moderate misbehavior

9. -types of behavior that can detract from learning and provoke teacher disapproval but doesn’t necessarily result in sanctions

10. GETTING IN TROUBLE FOR BREAKING SCHOOL RULES
-measure of intermediate misbehavior

11. -behavior that requires disciplinary action but not suspension
-examples include getting sent to the principal’s office if caught smoking or talking in class

12. SUSPENSION
Measure of serious misbehavior

13. -most serious school sanction besides getting expelled
-measured as dichotomous variable- ever suspended during senior year?
-rare: only 9% reported suspension at least once

14. Distribution of suspension
-only 9% reported they had been suspended at least once
-dichotomous variable => logistic regression

15. Results Immigrant generation affects misbehavior
First generation more prepared; 1.5 generation effect mediated by citizenship and language
1 and 1.5 generation in less trouble for breaking school rules than 3+ generation
Second generation no different from 3+ generation
-Attending class unprepared: speak language at home helps explain preparedness of 1.5 generation (helps maintain strong family bonds as predicted by segmented assimilation model)
-trouble: interaction between GPA and first generation
-findings suggest that becoming american (more time in U.S.) negatively affects behavior; beneficial protection of being an immigrant disappears quickly

16. Effect of immigrant generation and GPA on getting in trouble
Breaking school rules: effect of immigrant generation depends on GPA; GPA has little effect on intermediate misbehavior for first generation but rising GPA leads to less intermediate behavior for all other students (first generation low misbehavior due to family bonds, social distance from american culture, etc not academic behavior)
-something about first generation protects against misbehavior regardless of GPA

17. Results continued Immigrant generation not associated with suspension
Race/ethnicity associated with suspension
Black, Hispanic, American Indian, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander students more likely to get suspended than white students

18. Conclusions Immigrant generation affects school behavior
Beneficial effect of immigrant status disappears quickly: no difference between 2 and 3+ immigrant generation
Future research
Effects of peer groups on behavior
Impact of behavior on higher education
-key point: behavior is immigrant story not Asian story (immigrants in general protected- maybe by culture, connections to family, distance from American culture)
-results show that first and 1.5 generation immigrants have lower levels of moderate and intermediate misbehavior, which may help foster academic success and certainly shapes academic experience
-since second generation no different from first, suggests that more time in the U.S. hurts immigrant behavior so need to examine what it is about socialization into American culture that does this
-also need to look at the consequences of misbehavior on going on to college (my dependent variables would become intervening variables)