Gender and Generational Status in Immigrants’ Educational Achievement: Evidence for Segmented Assimilation?

Yue Qian, Ohio State University
Claudia Buchmann, Ohio State University
Zhe Zhang, Ohio State University

Children of immigrants comprise roughly 20 percent of U.S. school-age population. Despite a growing awareness of gender differences in educational performance, prior research on assimilation of immigrant children seldom examines boys and girls separately. Drawing on segmented assimilation theory, we use a nationally representative sample of high school students from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 to examine gendered patterns of generational differences in high school GPA and test scores by race and ethnicity. Third-plus generation Black and multiracial males lag behind earlier generations in grades, Hispanic boys have slightly higher grades over successive generations, and Asian and White boys show little generational differences. Generational differences among females are similar to those for males, except for Blacks, among whom males display declining GPAs whereas second generation females display the highest GPAs. With multivariate analyses we will investigate mechanisms through which gender and generational variations in academic performance emerge.