Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties and Academic Achievement in Immigrant Adolescents in Special Education

Abstract

The literature emphasizes that the school environment is a key factor for the mental health and academic achievement of immigrant and refugee children. However, few studies examined the role of school environment and peer relationships for these youth attending a special education class. The aim of this paper is to study the association between emotional difficulties and academic performance and their correlates in first and second generation immigrants assigned to a special class in a multiethnic environment. The results emphasize the need to adopt an eco-systemic model to understand the complex and probably bidirectional relations between the mental health symptoms and academic performance in immigrant adolescents identified as having difficulties by the school system. The salience of peer relations and classroom environment suggests that schools need to promote positive school-based relationships to improve immigrant adolescent mental health.

El Doble Peso del Contexto: efectos directos e indirectos del nivel socioeconómico y capital cultural en la adquisición de aprendizajes básicos en México

“…La primera es una encuesta dirigida a padres y madres de familia sobre capital cultural familiar, en ella se pregunta la escolaridad de ambos padres, el acceso a cultura, si tienen internet, número de libros en el hogar, asistencia al cine y expectativa de estudio de los niños y niñas encuestadas. Fuente: Los autores (2015).…”

“…Figura 6 -Gráfica de barras de error. Intervalos de confianza del desempeño en MIA Lectura (izquierda) y Matemáticas (derecha) según la Función de la escuela reportada por los evaluados Fuente: Los autores (2015).…”

“…Figura 7 -Gráfica de barras de error. Intervalos de confianza de las medias de los puntajes brutos de la ESECC según la presencia o ausencia de síntomas o molestias psiquíatricas Fuente: Los autores (2015).…”

“…Figura 9 -Gráfica de barras de error. Intervalos de confianza del Gusto por la escuela según los niveles de ESECC Fuente: Los autores (2015).…”

What are the experiences of education for unaccompanied asylum‐seeking minors in the UK?

“…Education has an important role in meeting the academic and social, emotional and mental health needs of resettled refugee children (Rousseau, Mustafa, & Beauregard, 2015). It has been found that refugee/asylum seeker children often prefer to receive mental health support through their school (Fazel, Garcia, & Stein, 2016) and that school‐based interventions may be an effective means of reducing trauma‐related symptoms (Sullivan & Simonson, 2015).…”