Understanding the academic achievement gap: an exploration of the role of parental educational aspirations, adolescent aspirations, and parental immigrant status
Date
2016
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Educational achievement is a rather complex concept to understand, particularly as it relates to understanding the factors that influence the academic outcomes of youth, as a means of uncovering deeper understanding of achievement disparities that exist between Latino youth and youth from various other ethnic groups. This study looked at the relationship between parental educational aspirations and academic achievement outcomes, the moderating effects of immigrant status on the association between parental educational aspirations and adolescent academic achievement outcomes, and lastly the mediating impact of adolescent educational aspirations on the relationship between parental educational aspirations and adolescent academic achievement outcomes. These associations were tested among a Hispanic sample and a general population sample. Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 were analyzed using Ordinary Least Squares regression. Findings from analyses demonstrated non-significant findings on all associations tested for the Hispanic sample. Analyses on the general population sample yielded significant and positive relations between parental educational aspirations and standardized reading and math scores. Immigrant status of parents was not found to be a moderator of the relationship between parental educational aspirations and academic achievement outcomes of youth in the 10th grade. Adolescent educational aspirations were found to mediate the relationship between parental educational aspirations and academic achievement outcomes. Strengths, limitations and implications are discussed.