Family-related antecedents of early adolescent immigrants' psychological and sociocultural school adjustment in Germany

Abstract

Immigrant students in many European countries have lower educational attainments than their mainstream classmates. The present study investigated family-related conditions for early adolescents’ acculturation orientations and psychological and sociocultural school adjustment in Germany. Analyses were based on data from 695 mostly second- and third-generation secondary school students from more than 50 countries. Parental acculturation expectations and cultural practices in the family (e.g., religion and language use) as well as their level of school involvement were the best predictors of pupils’ psychological and sociocultural outcomes. The importance of religion in the family differed most across immigrant groups and was strongly linked to adolescents’ ethnic orientation. Implications for research, educators, and policy makers are discussed.