Mexican immigrant children's math achievement: Neighborhood institutional resources and parents' educational involvement

Abstract

This study examined associations between the availability of neighborhood institutional resources and the fifth grade math achievement of children from Mexican immigrant families and if these associations were moderated by their parents' educational involvement. With data on two cohorts of children from Mexican immigrant families (N ∼ 880 and 1460, M_age ∼ 5 years at kindergarten entry, 50 % girls) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohorts: 1998/1999 and 2010/2011, multilevel regression results revealed positive associations between the availability of educational non-profits organizations and children's math achievement across cohorts and mixed results for other neighborhood-based institutions. Some neighborhood institutional resources were differently associated with children's math achievement by parents' educational involvement in the 1998 cohort only. The findings suggest that neighborhood educational non-profit organizations may play a positive role in promoting Mexican immigrant children's math achievement. They also highlight the need for future research on resource access, usage, and quality, and for building effective family-neighborhood partnerships that bolster the benefits of neighborhood resources for Mexican immigrant children.