Ethnic Identity in Children of Immigrants: Identity Pathways, Academic Outcomes, and the Mediating Effect of Parents and Peers.

This goal of this dissertation was to examine self-assigned ethnic identity label use and outcomes related to it in second generation immigrant youth. The data were drawn from the Cuban and Mexican participants in the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study. In Chapter 1 I reviewed immigrant acculturation theories and connected them to literature on ethnic identity formation and youth outcomes. While early ideology maintained that full assimilation to the Anglo-Saxon society was the best option, contemporary theories view bicultural acculturation (i.e. maintenance of a meaningful connection to heritage culture while learning to maneuver in the host culture) optimal. Chapter 2 examined what change in ethnic identity over time reveals about acculturation pathways. First, I established that the ethnic identity labels were distinguishable from each other by looking at language use and values. Results regarding longitudinal change suggested that for Cuban youth the psychological barrier between hyphenated (Cuban-American) and pan-ethnic identity (e.g. Latino) labels was highly permeable. For Mexican-origin youth this cluster also included country-origin identity (i.e. Mexican). The best predictors for identity label choice were earlier identity label choice and length of stay in the U.S. The hyphenated label emerged as the favorite in both groups by age 24. Chapter 3 investigated how longitudinal identity pathways are associated with academic outcomes in immigrant youth. Hyphenated identity (e.g., Cuban-American) was associated with most adaptive outcomes while country-origin identity (e.g., Cuban) was associated with least positive outcomes. Change towards hyphenated or pan-ethnic identity was associated with overall positive outcomes, and change towards country-origin identity with negative outcomes. The results suggest that concurrent identity status is a sufficient predictor for youth outcomes. Finally, Chapter 4 tested whether parental and peer messages about education mediate the link between identity label and educational aspirations. The results showed that youth with a country-origin identity (e.g., Cuban) had the least academically oriented parents and peers, while youth with a hyphenated identity (e.g., Cuban-American) had the most academically oriented peers. These messages mediated the relationship between identity label and aspirations. This is in line both with the immigrant acculturation theories and the Expectancy Value Theory.PHDEducation & PsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108780/1/sarel_1.pd

School Belonging in Different Cultures: The Effects of Individualism and Power Distance

Limited evidence exists on how the larger cultural framework affects psychological processes related to schooling. We investigated how the cultural dimensions of indi- vidualism/collectivism and power distance in uence the sense of school belongingness using 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment survey data on 15-year-old students from 31 countries. Hierarchical linear modeling analysis indicated that power distance (i.e., hierarchical nature of social relationships) is a better predictor of school belongingness on the cultural level than individualism/collectivism. Accordingly, students living in cultures with high degree of power distance (particularly East Asian countries in these data sets) report lower school belongingness than students living in cultures with more lateral power relationships (Western countries). Positive teacher student relations and preference for cooperative learning environment predict higher school belonging- ness across cultures.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147229/1/Cortina, Arel, Smith-Darden 2017.pdfDescription of Cortina, Arel, Smith-Darden 2017.pdf : main articl