Latino Parent-Child English Language Fluency: Implications for Maternal School Involvement

Abstract

Latino parents have lower levels of school involvement compared to other ethnic groups, which is often attributed—though not tested—to low English language proficiency. Using a population-based sample of 637 7th grade Latino youth attending an urban school district, we find no significant difference in maternal school involvement when mothers and students are either both fluent in English or both non-fluent. When students are more fluent than their mothers, however, maternal school involvement is significantly lower, suggesting that schools may need to take additional steps to encourage parental involvement when there is language dissonance between parents and their children.

Keywords

English language fluency language brokering parental language barriers Latino youth parental school involvement

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