2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Native and Immigrant Students: An Analysis of Well-being Using PISA 2018

Presented at Engineering and Public Policy Division (EPP) Technical Session 2

The United States hosts the worlds’ largest immigrant population that represents 13.7% of the total population and brings significant socioeconomic value to the American society. However, immigrants face a multitude of challenges involving sociological and psychological adaptation. Immigration can be particularly hard for adolescent immigrant students as they undergo significant, cultural, socioeconomic and emotional changes that can have a negative impact on their wellbeing and academic performance. As the US education system aims to support all students to achieve their life goals, this study aims to explore any potential differences in well-being among native and immigrant students. More specifically, this study is guided by the research questions, 1) what is the association between student wellbeing, and immigration status for adolescents in the USA? Does socioeconomic status moderate the relationship between wellbeing and immigration status?
Using multiple liner regression, we estimated a nationally representative sample of American students from the PISA 2018 assessment. Wellbeing was used as dependent variable while immigration status and sociodemographic factors as independent variables. We investigated the interaction between immigration status as first-generation and second-generation student and socioeconomic status to explore the moderating effect of socioeconomic status on the relationship between immigration status and wellbeing . We measure well-being through indicators including satisfaction with life, positive affect, and self-efficacy. We also controlled for the factors such as gender, grade level, and school level factors such as type of school, school urbanicity, and schools’ mean socioeconomic status. The findings revealed a positive association between socioeconomic status and wellbeing and first-generation students were found to have a lower level of wellbeing. Moreover, socioeconomic status does not moderate the relationship between immigration status and wellbeing.

Authors

Mr. Syed Ali Kamal University at Buffalo, The State University of New York [biography]

Syed Ali Kamal is a doctoral student in the Department of Engineering Education at University at Buffalo. His research interests lie in the area of social justice and issues related to diversity, equity and Inclusion. Before doctoral studies he worked in the higher education sector of Pakistan. He holds a masters degree in economics and is passionate about institutional and policy issues in the education sector. He has previously worked in projects aimed at promoting institutional adaptation to climate change in Pakistan.
Matilde Luz Sánchez-Peña http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3511-0694 University at Buffalo, The State University of New York [biography]

Dr. Matilde Sánchez-Peña is an assistant professor of Engineering Education at the University at Buffalo – SUNY where she leads the Diversity Assessment Research in Engineering to Catalyze the Advancement of Respect and Equity (DAREtoCARE) Lab. Her research focuses on the development of cultures of care and well-being in engineering education spaces, assessing gains in institutional efforts to advance equity and inclusion, and the use of data science for training socially responsible engineers.
Mr. Ahmed Ashraf Butt http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2047-8493 Carnegie Mellon University [biography]

Ahmed Ashraf Butt has recently completed his Ph.D. in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University, where he cultivated a multidisciplinary research portfolio bridging learning science, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and engineering education. His primary research focuses on designing and developing educational technologies that facilitate different student learning aspects (e.g., engagement). Further, he is interested in designing instructional interventions and exploring their relationship with different aspects of first-year engineering (FYE) students’ learning (e.g., motivation and learning strategies). Before Purdue University, he worked as a lecturer at the University of Lahore, Pakistan. Additionally, he has been associated with the software industry in various capacities, from developer to consultant.

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