University of Texas at San Antonio.
Child Dev. 2020 Sep;91(5):1423-1438. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13331. Epub 2019 Nov 1.
Scholars have proposed that immigrant optimism explains why some immigrant students outperform their United States-born peers academically. Yet, immigrant optimism has not been directly measured. This study aims to test the immigrant optimism hypothesis by operationalizing it using the Children's Hope Scale. Using structural equation modeling, the author examined the associations between hope, immigrant generation, citizenship status, and academic outcomes among a sample of 2,369 Latino 14- to 17-year-old students. Though no difference by immigrant generation was found, undocumented students were more hopeful than their documented peers. This finding suggests that the documentation status has an indirect relative effect on academic outcomes via hope. This article reexamines the immigrant optimism as a resource that could be fostered among Latino youth, regardless of immigrant status.
学者们提出，移民的乐观态度可以解释为什么有些移民学生在学术上表现优于在美国出生的同龄人。然而，移民的乐观态度尚未被直接衡量。本研究旨在通过使用儿童希望量表来验证移民乐观假设。作者使用结构方程模型，检验了 2369 名 14 至 17 岁拉丁裔学生中希望、移民代际、公民身份与学业成绩之间的关联。虽然移民代际之间没有差异，但无证学生比有证学生更有希望。这一发现表明，身份状况通过希望对学业成绩有间接的相对影响。本文重新审视了移民乐观主义作为一种资源的作用，这种资源可以在拉丁裔青年中培养，而不论其移民身份如何。
