Perceptions of school climate and school adjustment of children with a migration background

Maja Schachner Peter Noack Fons Van de Vijver

The setting
Increasing diversity in German schools 9.6% of pupils in German schools do not hold a German passport 64% of under 5-year olds in cities like Stuttgart have a migration background

BUT
Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Poor integration in German schools

There is a considerable overrepresentation of ethnic minority children in lower track schools On average children with a migration background seem to perform poorer than mainstream German children half a school year behind on average Even in ethnically mixed schools they are often poorly integrated amongst their German class mates and feel isolated

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

The Acculturation Framework

Acculturation Conditions Characteristics of the receiving society (e.g., discrimination, opportunity structures) Characteristics of the society of origin (objective, perceived) Characteristics of the immigrant group (objective, perceived) Personal characteristics

Acculturation Orientations Cultural adoption Cultural maintenance

Acculturation Outcomes Psychological well-being (psychological distress, mood states, feelings of acceptance, and satisfaction) Sociocultural competence in ethnic culture (interaction with conationals, maintenance of culturally appropriate skills and behaviors) Sociocultural competence in mainstream culture (interaction with hosts, acquisition of culturally appropriate skills and behaviors)

Arends-Tth & Van de Vijver, 2006

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

School climate reasearch

school climate as a microcontext shaping pupils interethnic attitudes (e.g. Gniewosz & Noack, 2008; Verkuyten & Thijs, 2001, 2002) Research linking school climate with psychological and performance outcomes (e.g. Kupermic, Leadbeater, Emmons & Blatt, 1997) But: Mostly focus on particular ethnic group and / or broad comparison of groups, intergroup relations rather than acculturation perspective

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Hypotheses

Acculturation Conditions

Acculturation Orientations

Acculturation Outcomes

Personal antecedents Cultural adoption Parental antecedents Cultural maintenance School context Psychological (and) school adjustment

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Sample

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Sample descriptives

1186 pupils with a migration background attending German secondary schools (Mage= 11.02; SDage=.89) 97% born in Germany or immigrated < 6 years old 82% of pupils with both parents from another country, 18% with one parent from Germany 91 countries of origin

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Scales - IVs
personal antecedents cultural distance (adapted from Galchenko & Van de Vijver, 2007) Sex parental antecedents SES (Currie et al., 2008 & Albert, Hurrelmann & Quenzel, 2010) parents adoption expectation (adapted from Arends-Tth & Van de Vijver, 2007) parents maintenance expectation (adapted from Arends-Tth & Van de Vijver, 2007) parents interest in school life (newly developed) school context diversity friendly climate: Expectations regarding cultural maintenance and integration, openness to diversity, multiculturalism in curriculum (partly adapted from Arends-Tth & Van de Vijver, 2007; partly newly developed) discrimination / assimilation climate (adapted from Berry, Phinney, Sam & Vedder, 2006; Arends-Tth & Van de Vijver, 2007; Jugert, Noack & Rutland, in press)

Overall reliability was good (.70 < < .86), except for SES (=.31)
Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Scales - DVs
acculturation orientation: mainstream orientation (adapted from Arends-Tth & Van de Vijver, 2007; Phinney, 1992) ethnic orientation (adapted from Arends-Tth & Van de Vijver, 2007; Phinney, 1992) outcome well-being: Attachment to school, academic and social self-concept and general life satisfaction(Berry, Phinney, Sam & Vedder, 2006; Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985; Marsh, 1989; Schne, Dickhuser, Spinath & Stiensmeier-Pelster, 2002) psychological problems: Physiological stress and depressivity (Berry, Phinney, Sam & Vedder, 2006) behavioural problems: Disruptive behaviour and delinquency (adapted from McCarthy & Hoge, 1987; Jenkins, 1999)

Overall reliability was good (.74 < < .94),

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Results

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model final model

model fit: 2(21, N = 1010) = 54.409, p = 0.000; AGFI = .964; TLI = .944; CFI = .985; RMSEA = .040 (90% CI: 0.0270.053)

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

well-being SES
parents adoption expectation

mainstream orientation

parental antecedents

outcomes
parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

psychological problems

ethnic orientation

school context

behavioural problems
diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

N=1010 after deleting cases with more than 20% missing variables

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model complete mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

SES
parents adoption expectation parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

school context

parental antecedents

diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model complete mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

SES
parents adoption expectation parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

mainstream orientation

parental antecedents

ethnic orientation

school context

diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model complete mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

well-being SES
parents adoption expectation

mainstream orientation

parental antecedents

outcomes
parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

psychological problems

ethnic orientation

school context

behavioural problems
diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model complete mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

-.10*** -.07**

well-being
-.04

SES
parents adoption expectation

mainstream orientation

parental antecedents

outcomes
parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

psychological problems

ethnic orientation

school context

behavioural problems
diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

p=.08

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model complete mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

well-being SES
parents adoption expectation parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

.09*** .54*** -.14*** .05***

mainstream orientation

parental antecedents

outcomes

psychological problems

-.09** .57*** .10***

ethnic orientation

school context

behavioural problems
diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model complete mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

well-being SES
parents adoption expectation

mainstream orientation

parental antecedents

outcomes
parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

psychological problems

.12*** -.12***
ethnic orientation

school context

.10***
diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

behavioural problems

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model complete mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

well-being SES
parents adoption expectation

mainstream orientation

.25*** parental antecedents

outcomes
parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

psychological problems

.21***
ethnic orientation

school context

behavioural problems
diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model complete mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

well-being SES
parents adoption expectation

mainstream orientation

.82***

parental antecedents

outcomes
parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

-.35***

psychological problems

ethnic orientation

-.12**

school context

behavioural problems
diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model partial mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

well-being SES
parents adoption expectation

mainstream orientation

parental antecedents

outcomes
parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

psychological problems

.30***

ethnic orientation

school context

behavioural problems
diversity friendly climate

-.18***
discrimination/ assimilation climate

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Path model partial mediation

personal antecedents

sex (male)
-.12***
cultural distance

.19***

well-being SES
parents adoption expectation

mainstream orientation

parental antecedents

outcomes
parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

psychological problems

-.18*** .23***

ethnic orientation

school context

behavioural problems

diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

.23*** .18***

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Final model proportions of variance explained

personal antecedents

sex (male)
cultural distance

well-being SES
parents adoption expectation parents maintenance expectation parents interest in school life

mainstream orientation

79%*
outcomes

parental antecedents

46%* 27%*
ethnic orientation

psychological problems

21%*
behavioural problems

school context

diversity friendly climate discrimination/ assimilation climate

38%*

16%*
*= % of variance explained by combined predictors

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Conclusions
Out of the personal antecedents, sex played a particular role with regards to the negative outcomes Out of the parental antecedents, parents acculturation expectations strongly predicted own acculturation orientations -> projection? Parents interest in school life seemed to be related to all outcomes Diversity relevant aspects of the school climate can explain psychological adjustment of pupils even when personal and parental factors are taken into account Positive aspects of the school climate seem to be mostly linked to positive outcomes Negative aspects of the school climate seem to have a broader effect but are also directly linked to negative outcomes Overall, the model is better at explaining positive than negative outcomes -> because the former are more common?

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Thank You!

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011

Discussion

Comments or suggestions?

Cross-Cultural Psychology Symposium Tilburg, 08/04/2011