List of Tables; List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Foreword by Cynthia García Coll; CHAPTER 1: Introduction; CHAPTER 2: Dominican Immigrants in the US and Providence, Rhode Island; CHAPTER 3: What do we know about Children of ImmigrantFamilies?; CHAPTER 4: Guiding Theories; CHAPTER 5: The Nuts and Bolts of this Study; CHAPTER 6: Modeling Language, Gender, and AcademicPerformance; CHAPTER 7: So what does all this Mean?; CHAPTER 8: Closing Thoughts; Notes; Appendix A; References; Index
Summary
Research has found immigrant youth perform better in school compared to their native-born peers. However, academic performance deteriorates with acculturation to US culture, whereas bilingualism has been associated with better performance in school. Peréa examined whether language acculturation could explain the variation in academic grades among Dominican children of immigrants, and tested whether children who preferred Spanish and English equally had better grades than those who preferred English only. Results indicate benefits associated with bilingualism, however they also indicate a gende