A reexamination: The role of familial acculturation and parental resources in the process of second generation immigrant assimilation

Over the past fifteen years, a burgeoning literature has examined how second generation immigrants are likely to be incorporated into American society, with scholars agreeing that language acculturation is an important part of this incorporation process. However, the field lacked the data to investigate the role of language acculturation in immigrant assimilation. Fortunately, the paucity of data was remedied by the collection of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey (CILS), a unique source of data on the second generation. While the field has benefited from growing attention and this new data, no single study has attempted to operationalize and measure language acculturation using the CILS and the theoretical guidelines outlined in previous publications. Moreover, the role of such a rigorously operationalized measure of acculturation on second generation assimilation outcomes is lacking in the field. I address both voids in this dissertation. I argue that acculturation is a process that involves parents and children, and generate quantitative measures of language acculturation that reflect that argument. I also examine how acculturation combines with the skills and resources that parents possess to help second generation immigrants attain higher education and avoid early job losses, marriages, and encounters with the law. Results indicate that acculturation moderates the relationship between parental resources and assimilation outcomes. If parents and children have had the potential for experiencing communication difficulties in the past, parents have difficulty utilizing their financial resources to help their children graduate from college in the future. Similarly, as the difference in English language comprehension between parents and children becomes smaller, parents are better able to help their children avoid early marriages and job losses in the future. These results suggest that the ability of parents to help their children in the future pitfalls depends on the rate at which families acquire language skills and circumvent communication difficulties.