Disrupted Education?: A Latent Profile Analysis of Immigration-Related Distractions and Academic Engagement among Undocumented College Students

ABSTRACT

Prior research has established that legal vulnerability affects undocumented students’ educational experiences. Building on this work, we examine how undocumented immigration status may disrupt academic performance through students’ behavioral engagement in their coursework. Drawing on a survey of nearly 1,277 undocumented college students in California, we use latent profile analysis to identify student profiles based on their experiences of immigration-related distractions. We then assess the role of self and family demographics on profile membership, and the relationship between immigration-related distraction profiles and students’ behavioral engagement outcomes. We identify five distraction profiles that indicate a wide variation in frequency of immigration-related distractions and suggest that these distractions result from both students’ own and their parents’ immigration-related issues. These distractions are consequential as students with more frequently distracted profiles are more likely to report negative behavioral engagement outcomes. Ultimately, we argue that academic distractions and behavioral disengagement are key ways in which legal vulnerability disrupts the academic success and educational experiences of undocumented students.

KEYWORDS:

• Undocumented college students
• immigration-related distractions
• academic success

Acknowledgments

We thank UC PromISE co-investigators Jennifer Nájera, Annie Ro, and Zulema Valdez as well as USEP project collaborators Basia Ellis, Melissa J. Hagan, Julián Jefferies, Jannet Lara, Martha Morales Hernandez, Enrique Murillo Jr., Carly Offidani-Bertrand, Maria Oropeza Fujimoto, William Rosales, Heidy Sarabia, Ana K. Soltero López, Mercedes Valadez, and Sharon Velarde Pierce.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ One case was deleted because it did not have responses for any of the eight indicators.

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted with the support of funding from the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives (MRI-19-601090), CSU Channel Islands Vice President for Student Affairs, CSU Fresno Kremen School of Education & Human Development, CSU Los Angeles College of Education, CSU Sacramento Center on Race, Immigration, and Social Justice, and San Francisco State University College of Science and Engineering.