Social inclusion of immigrant children at school: the impact of group, family and individual characteristics, and the role of proficiency in the national language

ABSTRACT

The present study, based on data concerning 2328 immigrant children attending a representative sample of 561 schools, investigates the impact of various group, family and individual characteristics as well as proficiency in the national language on acceptance and friendship among classmates, while controlling for measurement errors by means of a structural equation modelling approach. As regards group characteristics, the results indicate that only immigrant density in the classroom has a positive impact on social inclusion, which seems to be limited to peer acceptance. As regards family and individual characteristics, low-SES and female immigrants appear to be doubly vulnerable in class, which specifically affects their friendships. One of our main findings is that proficiency in the national language predicts the social inclusion of immigrant children, while controlling for all the other variables considered. A moderation analysis reveals that this factor also applies to second-generation immigrants. In conclusion, we suggest that interventions aiming to facilitate the social inclusion of immigrant children should take into account the fact that proficiency in the national language appears to be much more important than group, family and individual characteristics, and that low-SES and female immigrants require particular attention, since they are doubly vulnerable.

KEYWORDS:

• Social inclusion
• immigrant children
• proficiency in the national language
• group characteristics
• family characteristics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elisa Cavicchiolo

Elisa Cavicchiolo, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the University of Salerno, Department of Humanities, Philosophy and Education. Her research interests encompass school adjustment, social inclusion, structural equation modelling, multilevel analysis and mixed-method approach.

Sara Manganelli

Sara Manganelli, PhD, is a researcher at the Italian National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System (INVALSI). She has worked in international comparative surveys on students’ academic success and civic engagement, and in national projects about the evaluation of schools. Her major research interests pertain to the analysis of large-scale datasets with multilevel techniques and structural equation modelling.

Dora Bianchi

Dora Bianchi, PhD, is a PostDoctoral Research Fellow in Developmental Psychology at Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Developmental & Social Psychology, Italy. Her research interests encompass adolescent psychological well-being, health-risky behaviours and immigrant young people well-being.

Valeria Biasi

Valeria Biasi is associate professor at the Department of Education of ‘Roma Tre’ University. She is member of the PhD in ‘Educational and Social Theory and Research’, of the Italian Association of Psychology and of the Didactic Research Society (SIRD). Significant contributions, both theoretical and experimental, concerned the study of psychological conflict, affective and cognitive processes, attitudes, defence mechanisms, with applications on educational issues.

Fabio Lucidi

Fabio Lucidi, PhD, is a full professor in Psychometrics at ‘Sapienza’– University of Rome. He authored more than 130 scientific full papers edited in international scientific journals. He is in the editorial board of different national and international scientific journals. His main focus is the study of people’s ‘self-regulation’ of health behaviour. He is involved in different international collaborations with Institutions and University.

Laura Girelli

Laura Girelli, PhD, is a PostDoctoral Research Fellow in Psychology at the University of Salerno, Department of Humanities, Philosophy and Education. Her research applies social cognitive and motivational theories to understand and to promote diverse health behaviours such as physical activity and healthy eating. Her most recent work focuses also on the determinants of students’ academic success.

Mauro Cozzolino

Mauro Cozzolino, is associate professor of clinical psychology at the Department of Human, Philosophical, and Educational Sciences, University of Salerno (Italy). He is Director of the Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Research on Psycho-Social Genomics (Italy). He has carried out extensive research in the field of educational psychology with special reference to motivation to study and stress reduction in educational and academic contexts.

Fabio Alivernini

Fabio Alivernini, PhD, is an associate professor at Sapienza University of Rome. He has conducted numerous methodological and substantive studies involving the integration of qualitative and quantitative data. His research interests include the study of motivation during adolescence.