The Social Adaptation of Children of Mexican Immigrants: Educational Aspirations Beyond Junior High School*

Transcription

1 The Social Adaptation of Children of Mexican Immigrants: Educational Aspirations Beyond Junior High School* Aonghas St-Hilaire, University of Maryland, College Park Objective. This article draws on the concept of segmented assimilation to analyze the values toward, aspirations for, and realistic expectations of pursuing formal education among Mexican-origin students in southern California. Methods. Survey data inform the analyses, which include regression of educational aspirations and expectations on a series of potentially significant independent variables. Results. The evidence of segmented assimilation is mixed. Informants are nearly unanimous in professing positive values toward formal education. However, length of residency in the United States is negatively and fluent bilingualism in Spanish and English is positively associated with educational aspirations and expectations. Conclusions. At the cusp of entering high school, Mexican-origin students profess positive educational values, aspirations, and expectations, belying documented elevated rates of high school dropout and low rates of college attendance. Children of immigrants face a myriad of challenges in adapting to life in the United States. Some immigrant parents and their children adapt well and acquire the education and skills needed to gain access to well-paying, stable professions within a single generation. However, others struggle, seemingly ill prepared to meet the demands of highly stratified U.S. society, and commonly experience limited or stalled mobility. Of all children of immigrants in the United States, children of Mexican immigrants are at greatest risk for school failure and stalled social mobility (Chavkin and Gonzalez, 2000; Perlman and Waldinger, 1997; Rong and Preissle, 1998). Of the post-1965 immigrants, Mexicans come to the United States with the lowest levels of education (Portes and Rumbaut, 1990; Zhou, 1997a). Accordingly, among all immigrant nationalities, Mexican immigrants are situated at the bottom of the ladder of occupational skills (Perlman and Waldinger, 1997) and face the greatest challenges to upward socioeconomic movement (Waldinger, 2001a). Analogous to the low socioeconomic status of Mexican immigrant parents, children of Mexican immigrants lag behind others in rates of educational completion and on standardized achievement tests (Chavkin and *Direct all correspondence to Aonghas St-Hilaire, Croom Road, Croom, MD The author will share all data and coding materials for the purpose of replication. SOCIAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, Volume 83, Number 4, December by the Southwestern Social Science Association

2 Social Adaptation of Mexican Immigrant Children 1027 Gonzalez, 2000; Trueba, 1991). Mexicans and Latinos in general suffer from high rates of high school dropout relative to other groups in the United States (Bermudez, 1994; Romo and Falbo, 1996; Rong and Preissle, 1998; Valencia, 1991). In 1995, for example, both African Americans and whites had high school completion rates near 87 percent. The corresponding figure for Latinos was 57 percent (Romo, 1998). Furthermore, Mexican-born youth between the ages of 17 and 18, who represent approximately one-third of all foreign-born individuals in this age bracket, constitute two-thirds of all foreign-born high school dropouts (Rong and Preissle, 1998). Leaving high school with no diploma remains a problem among Mexican-origin students of subsequent generations and is generalized throughout the United States (Valencia, 1991). Moreover, Trueba and Bartolome (1997) argue that the situation has worsened. In terms of academic achievement, Latinos are faring more poorly today than Latinos of earlier generations, although there is some evidence that the contemporary second generation fares better at high school completion than does the first generation (Zhou, 2001). Social science practice has in recent years investigated the adaptation of the children of post-1965 immigrants and the role this adaptation plays in academic achievement and social mobility (Alba and Nee, 1997; Bourgois, 1991; Gans, 1992; Gibson, 1988; Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco, 2001; Perlman and Waldinger, 1997; Portes and Rumbaut, 2001; Portes and Zhou, 1993; Waldinger, 2001a; Zhou, 1997a, 1997b, 2001). The discipline has produced a body of literature with specific focus on the experiences of Mexican immigrants, their children, and subsequent generations of Mexican Americans or Chicanos in U.S. schools and within the larger U.S. society (Bermudez, 1994; Chavkin and Gonzalez, 2000; Landale, Oropesa, and Llanes, 1998; Matute-Bianchi, 1986; Partida, 1996; Romo, 1996, 1999; Suarez-Orozco, 1991; Trueba, 1991; Valenzuela, 1999). This article both borrows from and builds on previous sociological inquiry into immigration, immigrant adaptation, and academic achievement, with particular reference to Mexican immigrants and Mexican-origin youth. Specifically, this article examines the professed values toward and aspirations for formal education beyond junior high school among eighth- and ninth-grade children of Mexican immigrants. The theory of segmented assimilation is enlisted to explain variation in professed educational values and aspirations by length of residency in the United States and by social and demographic characteristics. Segmented Assimilation Classical straight-line assimilation, originally developed to explain the cultural and social adaptation of pre-1965 immigrants, posits that immigrants and their progeny find academic success and social mobility as they

3 1028 Social Science Quarterly assimilate to the mainstream culture of the United States (Child, 1943; Park, 1928; Warner and Srole, 1945). The majority of pre-1965 immigrants were European. Once having adopted the language and culture of mainstream Anglo-America, children and grandchildren of white immigrants could enter into this mainstream with relative ease (Warner and Srole, 1945). Furthermore, before 1965, the U.S. economy, with manufacturing as its base, provided many well-paying, low-skill jobs with which immigrants and their progeny could advance and enter the middle class. Among post-1965 immigrants, however, the situation is different. The race and social class of immigrants, combined with a changed domestic economy and occupational structure, thwart the mobility of many immigrant children (Portes and Zhou, 1993). Since 1965, the well-paying manufacturing jobs that traditionally supported the U.S. middle class have largely been relocated abroad. As a result, in the current U.S. economy there are many low-paying, low-skill service jobs, but few well-paying jobs for workers with limited education and professional experience. The wellpaying jobs at the upper end of the U.S. economy typically require high levels of education and professional and technical skills. Gans (1992) speaks of second-generation decline to describe the fate of many nonwhite children of poor immigrants. Without the educational qualifications and refined occupational skills, many immigrants and their children, particularly the poor and nonwhite, are unable to obtain jobs in the high-paying sectors of the economy. With access to the jobs that support the contemporary U.S. middle class blocked, assimilation to the norms of this class becomes less likely (Zhou, 1997b). The unprecedented racial diversity of immigration after 1965 and the changing nature of the U.S. economy during and after the 1970s forced a reconsideration of assimilation theory, pointing to possible causes of limited social mobility among Mexican Americans. The theory of segmented assimilation was formulated to better explain the diverse experiences of children of post-1965 immigrants (St-Hilaire, 2001). Portes and Zhou (1993) identify three patterns of adaptation among children of post-1965 immigrants. The first pattern follows the expectations of traditional pre-1965 theories of assimilation. Some children of contemporary immigrants assimilate quickly to the norms of mainstream middle-class culture and experience upward mobility. The second pattern is one of assimilation to the norms of the U.S. underclass. Children of immigrants who follow this pattern frequently live in the inner city and have close contact with native-born minorities and often experience stalled or downward assimilation. For immigrant groups following this pattern, the theory of segmented assimilation offers an explanation of the adaptive processes among children of immigrants that may work against academic achievement (Portes and Rumbaut, 2001; Portes and Zhou, 1993; Zhou, 1997b). Finally, according to the third pattern of assimilation, immigrants who deliberately hold to the values embedded in their native culture and maintain tight solidarity within their

4 Social Adaptation of Mexican Immigrant Children 1029 ethnic community in the United States make rapid socioeconomic advancement. For immigrants following this pattern of adaptation, full assimilation to American cultural norms is not necessarily a prerequisite to upward mobility, as it had been for immigrants in earlier decades. Contexts of Reception and Incorporation Ogbu (1991) argues that the initial incorporation of Mexicans into the United States and subsequent experiences of discrimination set Mexicans and Mexican Americans apart from other immigrant and ethnic groups in the intergenerational adaptation process. Mexican Americans have a long history in the United States as an involuntary minority, like African Americans and Native Americans. Moreover, contemporary Mexican Americans and non-latino whites tend to live in segregation from one another (Valencia, 1991). Relatively poor Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants, exhibiting characteristics of a caste-like minority, are often spatially located in poorer urban areas (Alba and Nee, 1997; Zhou, 1997b). Lowskilled native-born and immigrant urban residents commonly experience difficulty in achieving upward economic movement (Waldinger, 2001b). In urban areas of limited socioeconomic resources and blocked mobility, avenues of assimilation to the norms of mainstream United States are obstructed (Fernandez-Kelly, 1995). Among many poor, nonwhite minorities living in inner-city neighborhoods, oppositional norms often arise as youth become disenchanted with their current and future prospects (Portes and Zhou, 1993), or in reaction to how they are perceived in mainstream U.S. culture (Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco, 2001). Native minorities commonly reject mainstream norms and values as a means of self-preservation (Fordham, 1996). In the schools, the effect of this is frequently an undermining of academic achievement. Children of Mexican immigrants who settle in poor inner-city neighborhoods and who attend relatively disadvantaged schools tend to adapt, over time, to the prevailing norms of their native-born peers, often against their parents wishes and to the detriment of socioeconomic mobility (Portes and Zhou, 1993). Mexican-American youth living in disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods are more likely to drop out of school than those living elsewhere (Landale, Oropesa, and Llanes, 1998). Mexican-American students often have to contend with negative perceptions by their teachers (Matute-Bianchi, 1986). DeVillar (1994) argues that Mexican-American youth are commonly viewed by school personnel, as well as by society in general, as lacking the linguistic, cultural, moral, and intellectual traits that the school curriculum demands. Accordingly, Mexican- American students are systematically and disproportionately placed into tracks where low-ability skills are traditionally taught (Donato and de Onis, 1995). Peer pressure compounds the effects of negative perceptions held by

5 1030 Social Science Quarterly teachers and school administrators and of tracking. Bourgois (1991) found that many Puerto Rican youth in New York City, who had originally excelled academically, stopped doing well in school in order to gain the respect of their peers. Doing well in school was seen as acting white. This finding has been replicated among Mexican-American students elsewhere in the United States (Matute-Bianchi, 1991; Romo and Falbo, 1996; Suarez- Orozco, 1991). Mexican-American students who do well in school are often ridiculed as school boys, nerds, or acting white. Pressures to conform are intensified by the negative stereotypes many Mexican-American students hold of recent Mexican immigrants (Romo, 1997; Saragoza, 1989). Through negative encounters in the schools, many children of Mexican immigrants learn not to learn (Suarez-Orozco, 1991). Identity and Assimilation Identity plays a central role in the adaptation process of children of Mexican immigrants. Self-identification as an immigrant may protect children from the negative effects of assimilation (Fernandez-Kelly and Schauffler, 1994). Students whose parents enjoy higher socioeconomic status are more likely to identify with their parents nationality than are their poorer conationals/co-ethnics (Rumbaut, 1996). Without the high social status of parents as a form of protection, however, a Mexican national identity fails to adequately define the sense of self (Partida, 1996). Mexican-origin students of more modest socioeconomic backgrounds tend instead to identify with a pan-ethnic or pan-racial grouping, such as Hispanic or Latino, over a Mexican national identity. Matute-Bianchi (1991) conceptualizes four categories of identity among children of Mexican immigrants and Mexican-American students, each one related differently to academic achievement and potential social mobility. The first category is comprised of Mexican immigrants having arrived in the United States within three to five years. These students tend to be positively perceived by teachers as the most cooperative, serious, respectful, and eager to please. They dress differently, claim a Mexican national identity, and consider Mexico their permanent home. Many have limited proficiency in English. The second category is made up of Mexican-oriented students, who have lived in the United States for more than five years. These students speak Spanish at home, but are also fluent in English. They maintain strong bicultural ties with Mexico and are proud of their Mexican heritage. These students participate most actively in school activities and tend to outperform the other groups academically. They also tend to deride native-born Chicanos and Cholos for having lost their culture. The third and largest group, the Chicanos, are U.S.-born, second or third generation. They tend to be poor students and to experience alienation in the schools and within mainstream U.S. society. They maintain strong in-group loyalty vis-à-vis all

6 Social Adaptation of Mexican Immigrant Children 1031 non-chicanos. They commonly speak only English and ridicule academically successful Mexican students. The final group, the Cholos, are involved in gang-like activities and participate only marginally, if at all, in academic pursuits. In contrast with students born in Mexico, U.S.-born Chicanos and Cholos tend to be negatively perceived by teachers and school administrators as unmotivated, irresponsible, disrespectful, apathetic, and sullen (Matute-Bianchi, 1986, 1991). These youth are the most aware of the discrimination Mexican Americans face in the white mainstream and often adhere to a set of reactive norms as a means of protecting their self-worth (Portes and Zhou, 1993). Partida (1996) attributes the rise of the Chicano movement as a reaction to discrimination. The norms that arose to meet the needs of disaffected Mexican-American youth, however, have also frequently served as a barrier to upward mobility (Portes and Zhou, 1993). Matute- Bianchi (1986) found that Chicano students reacted to their exclusion and subordination with resentment and adhered to in-group norms in resistance to the dominant majority white society. In their resistance, these students tended to reject schooling and downplay academic achievement. Culture, Values, and Education Culture and values play a fundamental role in the education of children of immigrants. The generalized literature on immigrant adaptation deals both implicitly and explicitly with cultural values and their impact on educational performance and social mobility (Alba and Nee, 1997; Caplan, Choy, and Whitmore, 1992; Duran and Weffer, 1992; Fukuyama, 1993; Portes and Schauffler, 1994; Portes and Zhou, 1993; Steinberg, 1996; Zhou, 1997b). Cultural values embedded in ethnicity account for much of the differences in academic achievement across national-origin groups. The more specific literature on Mexican-American education similarly highlights the importance of culture and values in the educational process (Donato and de Onis, 1995; Griggs and Dunn, 1996; Losey, 1997; Partida, 1996; Romo, 1996, 1999; Romo and Falbo, 1996; Valencia, 1991; Valenzuela, 1999). Complete assimilation and the abandonment of traditional Mexican cultural values may be linked to the dampening of educational outcomes and social mobility among Mexican-origin youth (Matute-Bianchi, 1986; Portes and Zhou, 1993; Valenzuela, 1999). Children of Mexican immigrants who remain connected to and continue to identify with the cultural values of Mexico are less likely to be in conflict with their parents and are protected somewhat from the negative effects of assimilation (Portes and Zhou, 1993). The ability of Mexican parents to instill positive educational values has a significant effect on academic achievement among their children (Duran and Weffer, 1992). Students retaining strong cultural and family identities tend to perform better at school

7 1032 Social Science Quarterly (Portes and Schauffler, 1994). Immigrant parents are more likely to have rules about grades and homework, making their children aware of the primary importance of education (Caplan, Choy, and Whitmore, 1992). Some immigrant values and norms, however, work against the successful adaptation of children (Fukuyama, 1993). The reluctance of Mexican immigrant parents to enter the schools and meet with teachers and administrators has served as an obstacle in the education of Mexican-origin youth, compounding the deleterious effects of school administrators and teachers negative attitudes toward this student population and negative peer pressure at school. Mexican immigrants, particularly those from rural areas, tend to bring to the United States the distrust of educational institutions they harbored in Mexico (Saragoza, 1989). Data and Methods Methods The main purpose of the research is to analyze values toward and aspirations for formal education as well as the association between professed aspirations and realistic expectations, on the one hand, and a series of independent variables highlighted in the literature on immigrant youth adaptation and education, on the other. Data from the Children of Immigrants Project, funded by the Spencer Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, and National Science Foundation, inform the research. If the literature is correct, one would expect that U.S.- born and American-acculturated Mexican-origin students, particularly those from modest families and those attending disadvantaged inner-city schools, would aspire to lower levels of formal education and would profess lower realistic expectations of bringing their aspirations to fruition than would Mexican-born and Mexican-oriented students and students from higher SES families and from suburban and less disadvantaged schools. Values toward, aspirations for, and realistic expectations of formal education beyond junior high school are treated as dependent variables. Measures of acculturation and identity, discrimination, parental background, and school context are treated as independent variables in the construction of the analytical models. Sample The data were collected through a 1992 survey of randomly selected eighth- and ninth-grade students in the San Diego school system. The median age of the informants at the time of data collection is 14. By limiting the survey to students in these two grades, the problem of attrition common in higher grades is avoided. To take part in the study, respondents must have

8 Social Adaptation of Mexican Immigrant Children 1033 been either immigrants from Mexico themselves or have had at least one of their parents enter the United States as an immigrant from Mexico. Questionnaires, in English- or Spanish-language versions, were administered to students in schools selected to include both inner-city and suburban settings, and student populations with varying proportions of whites, minorities, and immigrants. Within the selected schools, eligible students were sampled with a probability equal to one. These techniques yielded the sample of 728 Mexican-origin students that informs the following data analyses. Measures The survey question, John said: Education is the key to get ahead in this country. I ll get as much education as I can. Peter said: Education is less important than meeting the right people. As soon as I can, I ll leave school. Who do you think is right? 1. John. 2. Peter. 3. Neither. serves as a measure for the respondent s values toward formal education. A dummy variable is created from this measure, where 1 = John and 0 = Peter or Neither. Two other survey questions deal expressly with aspirations for formal education beyond junior high school. The first question reads: What is the highest level of education that you would like to achieve? 1. Less than high school. 2. Finish high school. 3. Finish some college. 4. Finish college. 5. Finish a graduate degree (masters, doctor, etc.). The second question asks the informant: And realistically speaking, what is the highest level of education that you think you will achieve? 1. Less than high school. 2. Finish high school. 3. Finish some college. 4. Finish college. 5. Finish a graduate degree (masters, doctor, etc.). These measures are coded in ascending order, from 1 to 5, according to level of education expressed by student. The independent variables were screened for multicollinearity using stepwise regression. The independent variables selected for inclusion into the linear regression models include a group of measures of acculturation and identity. Length of residency in the United States is key within this group of variables. For length of residency, the codes are 1 = less than five years, 2 = five to nine years, 3 = 10 or more years, and 4 = all my life. A dummy variable created to measure perceived fluent bilingualism (1 = oral fluency in English and Spanish, 0 = imperfect oral proficiency in both or either languages) is an additional indicator of acculturation. Fluent bilinguals are identified as those students who responded very well to both How well do you speak English? and How well do you speak Spanish? Another dummy variable indicating self-reported ethnic identity (1 = Hispanic, 0 = other, including Mexican-American and Mexican) informs the analysis of the relationship between identity formation and educational aspirations and expectations. This variable is created from the survey question: How do you identify, that is what do you call yourself? (Examples: Anglo, African-

9 1034 Social Science Quarterly American, Hispanic, American, Cuban, Cuban-American, Jewish, Irish, Mexican-American, etc.). Another group of variables is designed to measure discrimination, either experienced or perceived. The dummy variables measuring discrimination by teachers and by students are derived from the survey questions: Have you ever felt discriminated against? 1. Yes. 2. No. (If yes) And by whom did you feel discriminated? (Check all that apply: a. Teachers, b. Students, c. Counselors, d. White Americans in general, e. Cubans in general, f. Black Americans in general). The survey question, No matter how much education I get, people will still discriminate against me. 1. Very true. 2. Partly true. 3. Not very true. 4. Not true at all. is a further measure of perceived discrimination. Two parental factor variables are included in the models. One variable, a parent SES index, is a composite variable based on information provided by the student on parent education, occupation (Duncan scale), and whether the informant s parents rent or own their home. The other variable measures parent-child conflict. The survey question informing this variable, And how often do you get in trouble because your way of doing things is different from that of your parents? 1. All the time. 2. Most of the time. 3. Sometimes. 4. Never. includes a dimension of intergenerational cultural conflict. A final independent variable used in the models is a school context measure. This is a dummy variable indicating whether the student informant attends an inner-city school (1 = inner-city school, 0 = suburban school). Unfortunately, the data do not include information on tracking in the schools. The lack of tracking information represents a shortcoming of the data. Sample Data Characteristics Of the 728 cases used for data analysis, 50.8 and 49.2 percent are male and female, respectively. In terms of length of residency in the United States, 55.4 percent were born in the United States, 15.8 percent lived in the United States 10 years or more, 15.5 percent lived on U.S. soil five to nine years, and 13.3 percent lived in the country less than five years. In terms of bilingual ability and identity, 29.5 percent perceived themselves as fluently bilingual in Spanish and English and 29.5, 19.4, 28.7, 17.1, and 5.3 percent self-identified as Hispanic, Mexican, Mexican-American, unknown (label not provided by student), and other, respectively. In terms of discrimination, 18.8 and 32.3 percent experienced or perceived discrimination by teachers and students, respectively. Moreover, 14.1, 21.2, 28.6, and 35.9 percent, respectively, indicated that it was very true, partly true, not very true, and not true at all that they will still face discrimination with education. The mean of the standardized parental socioeconomic status index is 1.85, with a minimum of 1.66, a maximum of 1.85, and a standard deviation of In addition, 6.0, 15.8, 43.8, and 32.7 percent

10 Social Adaptation of Mexican Immigrant Children 1035 TABLE 1 Getting Ahead: Education Versus Meeting Right People Frequency Percent Education is key Meeting people is key Neither Total of student informants indicated clashes with parents all of the time, most of the time, sometimes, and never, respectively. Finally, 58 percent of the students in the sample attended an inner-city school. Data Analysis Plan The data for the variable representing values toward education are presented in table format, using statistically derived data frequencies. The data for the two variables representing the aspirations for and the realistic expectations of education beyond junior high school are also presented in tables and in the form of data frequencies. The selected independent variables grounded in the review of the literature and presented above are then regressed on the dependent variables measuring aspirations and realistic expectations to create the first and second models, respectively. For the third and final model, with realistic expectations as the dependent variable, the variable measuring aspirations for education is introduced as a control. Results Table 1 indicates that approximately 90 percent of the students agreed with the statement: Education is the key to get ahead in this country. I ll get as much education as I can. Less than 6 percent agreed with the statement: Education is less important than meeting the right people. As soon as I can, I ll leave school. So skewed is the distribution of responses that statistical analysis of shared variance between this variable and the aboveidentified independent variables bears little fruit. The great majority of the eighth- and ninth-grade students, independent of length of residency in the United States, perceived linguistic abilities, ethnic self-identity, experiences or perceptions of discrimination, parental SES, reported cultural conflict with parents, and school context, believe that education is a superior means of socioeconomic advancement. The data indicate a near universal sharing of pro-education values. At the middle-school and junior-high-school levels, at the cusp of entering high school, it appears that the purported negative pressures of assimilation are not yet manifest among children of Mexican immigrants. There is no evidence from these data that eighth- and ninth-

11 1036 Social Science Quarterly TABLE 2 Highest Level of Education Student Wants to Achieve Frequency Percent Less than high school Finish high school Finish some college Finish college Finish graduate school Total grade Mexican-origin students have assimilated to oppositional norms that disfavor formal education. The data on aspirations for and realistic expectations of education beyond junior high school are characterized by considerably greater variation than the data on values toward education. This variation notwithstanding, Table 2 indicates that the overwhelming majority of the students aspire to obtain at least a high school diploma. Most also profess the aspiration to gain at least some college or university education. Three-quarters would like to obtain a college degree or higher. Nearly one-half expressed the desire to attain a graduate degree. Like the data on values toward education, the data on educational aspirations give little indication that Mexican-origin students in the eighth and ninth grades reject formal education as a means of socioeconomic advancement or as an end in and of itself. The two sources of data are in conformity here. The students express aspirations that closely pattern their professed values toward formal education. While 9 out of 10 students express positive values toward education (getting as much education as they can), 99 percent aspire to finish high school and 88 percent aspire to complete at least some college or university education. Table 3 indicates an imperfect match between aspirations and realistic expectations for education beyond the ninth grade. In general, perceptions of what is realistically attainable lag behind the students aspirations. Still, 99 percent consider completing high school a realistic goal. A further 80 percent hold to at least some college education as a realistic attainment. This figure drops to approximately 60 percent, however, when the goal is to finish college. The greatest variation between aspirations and realistic expectations is at the graduate-school level. Although nearly 50 percent professed aspirations for a graduate degree, less than 30 percent considered this goal within their reach. Students who express especially high aspirations for continuing their education are more likely to temper these aspirations with a dose of perceived limitations. Nevertheless, like the data on values and aspirations, the data on realistic expectations provide little evidence of any unusually high rejection of formal education among Mexican-origin youth. As late as the eighth and ninth grades, all but a small handful of children of Mexican immigrants realistically expect to graduate from high school and a

12 Social Adaptation of Mexican Immigrant Children 1037 TABLE 3 Highest Level of Education Student Believes He or She Will Realistically Attain Frequency Percent Less than high school Finish high school Finish some college Finish college Finish graduate school Total solid majority believe it within their reach to gain some college education, if not a college degree. Table 4 displays the results of regressing the different independent variables on aspirations for and realistic expectations of pursuing a course of formal education through high school and beyond. The first column outlines the independent variables used in the models. The second column contains the results of regressing professed educational aspirations on these variables. In support of the idea of segmented assimilation, length of residency in the United States is negatively related to aspirations for education beyond the ninth grade. This variable has the second greatest explanatory power of the model. In contradiction to recent findings that secondgeneration Mexican-Americans complete higher levels of education than first-generation immigrants (Zhou, 2001), U.S.-born Mexican-origin students profess lower educational aspirations than their Mexican-born peers. Recent immigrants aspire to higher levels of education than their earlier arriving and native-born counterparts. The perceived ability to speak both Spanish and English with fluency is positively related to aspirations, but this association is not statistically significant. Moreover, the relationship between identifying oneself as Hispanic is a weak and statistically insignificant one. Contrary to research expectations, the adoption of a pan-ethnic or panracial identity is not associated with lowered educational aspirations. There is, however, some statistical evidence that experienced or perceived discrimination is associated with aspirations for post-junior-high-school education. Experiences or perceptions of discrimination by teachers is negatively related to the students aspirations, but the relationship is not a statistically significant one. However, experiences or perceptions of discrimination by fellow students is statistically and significantly associated with professed academic aspirations. Students who profess aspirations for high levels of education tend to report experiences of discrimination on the part of their school peers with greater frequency than those students with lower academic goals. This result lends some tentative support to the idea that high-achieving Mexican-origin students are subject to pressures to conform to lower aspirations (and lower academic standards) in the form of negative peer sanctions (the Pearson correlation coefficient for reports of

13 1038 Social Science Quarterly TABLE 4 Standardized Beta Coefficients from the Regression of Educational Aspirations and Realistic Expectations on Selected Independent Variables Independent Variable Educational Aspirations Realistic Expectations (I) Realistic Expectations (II) Acculturation and Identity Length of residency in U.S *** 0.231*** 0.099** Fluently bilingual *** 0.103** Hispanic/Latino identity Discrimination By teachers By students 0.095* 0.101* Discrimination even with education Parental Factors Parent SES index 0.201*** 0.242*** 0.106** How often clashes with parents School Context Inner-city school Educational Aspirations Educational aspirations 0.681*** Adjusted R NOTE: * < 0.05, ** < 0.01, *** < (two-tailed tests). peer discrimination and GPA is and is significant at < 0.01). Parental SES, however, does serve to buffer students from the negative effects of assimilation. In the model, parental SES is the single strongest predictor of student academic aspirations. Cultural or intergenerational conflict with parents is not a significant variable in this model. Nor is the dummy variable, attending an inner-city school. Parental SES, length of residency in the United States, and experiences/perceptions of discrimination by peers are the sole significant predictors. The model is relatively weak, with an adjusted R 2 of 0.071, revealing a high degree of indeterminacy in student aspirations. The model of realistic expectations for continued education (Column 3 of Table 4) has, as a whole, somewhat greater explanatory power than the model of professed educational aspirations. Like the aspirations model, parental SES is the single strongest predictor of students perceptions of what they can realistically attain for education beyond the eighth and ninth grades. Similarly, length of residency in the United States is the second strongest, statistically significant predictor variable. Students from higher SES families and students who are relatively recent immigrants to the United States tend to perceive a greater likelihood of attaining higher educational goals. The variable measuring experiences or perceptions of dis-

14 Social Adaptation of Mexican Immigrant Children 1039 crimination by fellow students also has a statistically significant and positive association with realistic expectations of continued education. The perceived command of both Spanish and English is here statistically significant and positively associated with the educational expectations. Fluently bilingual students tend to hold to higher realistic goals for themselves. None of the other independent variables are statistically significant in predicting variation in the expectations. There is no statistical evidence that adopting a pan-ethnic, pan-racial (Hispanic) identity, experiencing or perceiving discrimination by teachers, perceiving societal discrimination regardless of level of education attained, cultural conflict with parents, and attending an inner-city school are related to what the students perceive as within their reach. The third model (Column 4), with educational aspirations entered as a control variable, is the strongest of the three in accounting for statistical variance. The control variable accounts for the lion s share of this variance. Students tend to conceive as realistic what they profess as their aspired educational goals. However, this relationship is not perfect. Length of residency in the United States, fluent bilingualism, and parental SES are additional statistically significant predictor variables. The remaining independent variables fall short in statistical significance. Lengthy residence in the United States, according to this model, is associated with lower expectations for continued education beyond the eighth and ninth grades, even with professed aspirations for such education controlled for. Students residing in the United States for relatively long stretches of their lives tend to understate what they conceive as realistic relative to their educational aspirations and their more recently arrived peers. Conversely, more recent immigrant students realistically expect to achieve higher levels of formal education relative to professed aspirations. Students from higher SES families tend to overstate what they believe they can attain relative to their aspirations and their lower SES counterparts. Fluent bilinguals, too, tend to overstate what is realistically attainable relative to their professed academic aspirations and their lessthan-fluently-bilingual peers. Discussion and Conclusion The findings reveal mixed and inconclusive evidence of segmented assimilation among children of Mexican immigrants. The belief in education as a superior means of socioeconomic advancement is an almost universally held value. The great majority of Mexican-origin students in the eighth and ninth grades, regardless of socioeconomic and demographic background, value education as a tool for getting ahead in the United States. The data on professed values toward education do not support notions of segmented assimilation. The cultural hegemony of the value of education within U.S. society likely has a major effect on the alleged values of the Mexican-origin

15 1040 Social Science Quarterly youth. Furthermore, the adoption of a pan-ethnic, racial identity does not hint at any diminution of values toward education and of academic aspirations and expectations. Student perceptions of the persistence of societal discrimination no matter how much education they receive and student reports of cultural, intergenerational conflict with their parents, although potential indicators of alienation and potential measures of latent adherence to oppositional norms, do not provide any evidence of segmented assimilation either. Moreover, attending an inner-city school, a supposedly high-risk environment in the assimilation process, does not have any significant bearing on student values, aspirations, or expectations. However, as Mexican-origin students become acculturated to the norms of their peers and of the larger social environment in which they live, as measured by length of residency in the United States, they tend to aspire to lower levels of education and to harbor lower realistic expectations for continued education after the eighth and ninth grades. Moreover, Mexicanorigin students who maintain fluency in Spanish, while acquiring or maintaining fluency in English, tend to aspire to and expect greater educational opportunities for themselves. These findings partially support theories of segmented assimilation and its impact on the academic and socioeconomic achievement of children of immigrants. However, even here, parental SES is the single most significant factor in student aspirations for and expectations of formal education beyond the eighth and ninth grades. Students from higher SES families tend toward higher professed educational aspirations and expectations, regardless of length of U.S. residency and perceived Spanish-English bilingualism. The findings do not correspond neatly with documented high rates of high school dropout and low rates of college attendance among Mexicanorigin and Latino youth. The discrepancy between the findings of this study and the literature on the adaptation of immigrant youth and on Mexican- American education may reside in the students age. It is conceivable that the 14 year olds, the median age of the students in the study, have not fully or even partially assimilated to purported norms rejecting or downgrading academic achievement. The problem of attrition, common in higher grades, may not start influencing students educational decisions until after the ninth grade. As students progress through higher grades of high school and through adolescence into early adulthood, it is possible that discrimination becomes more palpable, academic tracking becomes more significant, pressures to conform to group norms intensify, identities become more fixed, and values toward education, aspirations for education, and realistic appraisals of what is academically attainable become more negative. Future longitudinal research tracking student academic aspirations and expectations with actual levels of completed education at two or more points in time would likely shed greater light on the social adaptation of Mexican-origin youth, as well as on the validity of the theory of segmented assimilation for this demographic group.

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