Meta-analysis on the relation between acculturation and academic performance: Testing the immigrant paradox

Abstract

This meta-analysis is designed to test the immigrant paradox hypothesis, which argues that first-generation immigrant students tend to outperform their more acculturated peers. We aim to unpack the complex relation between acculturation and academic performance among immigrant-origin students with attention to methodological and demographic moderators. The review includes 79 independent samples generated from 54 studies, representing 89,827 students (M = 646.24, SD = 862.93) with a mean age of 13.26 (SD = 5.16). We found an overall main effect of 0.04, (p < .001), suggesting a significant, positive correlation between acculturation and academic performance. However, given the significant variation among studies, focused moderator analyses revealed the importance of critical methodological (e.g., type of acculturation measure used, type of academic indicator used, and type of publication) and demographic (e.g., developmental stage, race/ethnicity, urbanicity) factors that moderate the relation between acculturation and school achievement. These results suggest the opposite of the immigrant paradox, that is second-generation (or more acculturated) students seem to perform better than their first-generation (or less acculturated) peers. Moderation analysis, however, revealed that acculturation seems to have no effect on grades, while having a positive effect on test scores. Finally, we found a positive relation between acculturation and academic performance in studies conducted with children and adolescents, but not for young adults.