Immigration as a risk factor for adolescent adaptation in Greek urban schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the association of immigrant status to adversity and adjustment. Two samples of 12- to 15-year-old public school students in the Athens area were studied: a sample of first generation Albanian and Native Greek students attending two public schools (N = 325), and a sample of first-generation Pontian immigrants (of Greek heritage) and Native Greek students attending a third public school (N = 242). Competence and emotional adjustment were measured with multiple methods and informants, including school grades, number of absences, teacher ratings of achievement and behaviour, peer popularity nominations and self-report measures of emotional symptoms and anxiety. Adversity measures included immigrant status, a risk score based on life events and another based on socioeconomic (SES) variables. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that in the Albanian schools, SES and life events were associated with worse adjustment in multiple domains. Once these differences were controlled, immigrant status was still associated with lower grades and fewer nominations as friends by classroom peers. In contrast, in the Pontian school, immigrant status did not have unique significance; only SES disadvantage was related to academic achievement as assessed by grades. The “Greekness” of Pontian students and discrimination against Albanian students are discussed as possible explanations for these results.

Keywords:

• Adolescence
• emotional adjustment
• immigration
• life events
• school adjustment
• socioeconomic adversity

Acknowledgments

This project is supported by a grant to the first author, which is co-funded by the European Social Fund and Greek National Resources (EPEAEK II-PYTHAGORAS).

Notes

¹A collaboration between the Department of Psychology of the University of Athens, Greece and the Institute of Child Development of the University of Minnesota, USA.