Adjustment of Immigrant Children as a Function of Parental Attitudes to Change

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the adjustment in school of immigrant children and their parents’ attitudes to social change and new experiences. The subjects were 51 Jewish children between the ages of six and fifteen, all born in the former Soviet Union and immigrants to the United States, and a comparison group of 51 American-born Jewish children attending the same parochial school in San Francisco. Parental attitudes to social change and new experiences were found to be significant predictors of the adjustment in school of both immigrant and native children, even when the effects of parental education, family SES, and children's age, intelligence, English language competence and immigrant/native status were held constant. Parental attitudes to social change and new experience were not found to be differentially associated with adjustment for immigrant as opposed to native children. An interaction was found between the gender of the parent holding the set of attitudes toward change and new experiences, and the differential adjustment of sons and daughters.