Transformations: Immigration, Family Life, and Achievement Motivation Among Latino Adolescents

In virtually all advanced industrialized countries, the explosive topic of immigration has engendered heated argument, political anger, cultural anxieties and blatant racism. In the United States, most of the attention is on the stream of Mexicans crossing the border in such numbers that early in the next century Latinos are expected to surpass African Americans as the largest minority group. This book focuses on key aspects of the problem, including the puzzling differences between Mexico-born adolescents and adolescents born in the United States. Whereas Mexico-born adolescents are highly motivated to learn English and use the educational system to improve their lot, US-born adolescents seem angry, frustrated, and less interested in academic achievement. In a psychological and cultural examination of four representative groups of adolescents, this study seeks to account for this difference.