Ethnicity, Immigrant Generation Status, and School Attainment of Asians, Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites.

A cross sectional study of the effects of ethnicity and immigrant generation status on the educational attainment of Asian, Hispanic, and White youth clearly indicates that generation of residence affects educational attainment, but that the effects are not wholly consistent across generation and ethnicity. The following immigrant generational groups are examined: (1) immigrants (defined as those born in foreign countries of non-American parents); (2) children of immigrants (American-born with one or more foreign-born parent); and (3) natives (American-born of American-born parents). Statistical data were analyzed from a sample of 22,695 youth aged 14 to 24 drawn from the 1979 Current Population Survey comprised of 91 percent Whites, 1.7 percent Asians, and 7.4 percent Hispanics. The following general patterns were observed: (1) children of immigrants attain more years of schooling than do immigrants; (2) attainment for Whites declines in the native as compared with the children of immigrant generations; (3) attainment for Asians appears to peak in the children of immigrant generation and to level off after that; (4) attainment for Hispanics increases with each generation, though gains slow down after the children of immigrant generation; and (4) Asians have the highest mean years of schooling attained and Hispanics have the lowest. None of the existing theories that attempt to explain the effects of immigrant status on school attainment provide a close fit with the findings of this analysis and further research is suggested to analyze what personal qualities, motivational factors, and social circumstances lead to high attainment for each group. A list of 74 references and statistical data on 4 graphs and 5 tables are appended. (FMW)