Relating differently: Assessing and comparing associations between social and affective adjustment factors in immigrant and non-immigrant students.

Background: Immigrant students face additional challenges in educational settings. Current research lacks understanding of the associations between social aspects of students' school life, their impact on adjustment and how these differ based on immigrant status. We argue that solely knowing noting about the existence of differences is insufficient, and there is a need to better comprehend the complexity of such inequalities.

Aims: This study aimed at exploring associations among reported bullying, friend and teacher relationships, achievement motivation, well-being and sense of school belonging, and comparing them among native and non-native students.

Methods: We used structural equation modelling to test a theoretically proposed model. Multi-group analysis compared associations between native and non-native students, with additional analyses exploring differences between first- and second-generation students.

Results: Immigrant status is linked to higher reports of bullying and poorer friendship quality. First-generation (1G) immigrants are particularly affected in their friendships compared to second-generation (2G) peers. The association between socioeconomic status (SES) and bullying was negative and significant in the native sample, but positive and slightly significant for non-natives. The positive relationship between SES and the quality of friendships was only significant for the 1G sample, but not for 2G students. Finally, the negative association between bullying and well-being was only significant for 2G students, but not for 1G immigrants. These and other results are presented and discussed.

Conclusions: Natives, 1G and 2G immigrant students show some differences in the way their social and affective school factors relate to one another. Implications, limitations and future directions are discussed.