Social and Psychological Factors in the Academic Achievement of Children of Immigrants: A Cultural History Puzzle

The influence of various factors in immigrant studentsʹ school achievement was examined in informing broader discourses on schooling, inequality, and related conceptual issues. The ways in which different types of predictors of school achievement behave in context with factors related to adolescence and cultural adaptation in a sample of children of immigrants were explored. The influence of cultural background remains enigmatic and could not be disaggregated entirely by key demographic and sociopsychological factors considered in this study. The latter explained almost 40% of the variation in student achievement. The two groups found to excel in American schools (Asian and Cuban) have more established inroads in the community and may be able to provide greater social and cognitive support. The lowest achievers were from groups that have the least support, encounter language problems in school, and felt most unwelcomed by the mainstream. The cultural compatibility between each group and the school context appears to vary in systematic ways and is addressed in a model proposed in the article.