UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
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Item THE HOME LITERACY ENVIRONMENT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT: ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND SOCIAL SKILLS OF CHILDREN IN IMMIGRANT FAMILIES(2012) MOON, UI JEONG; Hofferth, Sandra L; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The home literacy environment has been shown to be crucial to young children's academic achievement and social skills. This study examines the longitudinal effects of home-based literacy related activities on children's academic achievement test scores and social skills from kindergarten up to 5th grade. To conduct this study, data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), provided by the U.S. Department of Education, were utilized. Children with at least one immigrant parent were categorized according to their mother's country of origin: South America, Mexico, Caribbean/Central America, East Asia, Southeast Asia, other countries, and the U.S. (with a foreign-born father). Using a latent difference score model, parental involvement and reading activity at home were linked to children's academic achievement test scores and social skills at kindergarten, along with changes in scores between each time point. Results of analyses suggest that boys benefit more from parents' involvement at home than do girls. Both boys' and girls' independent reading appear to be strongly linked to developing strong reading and math skills. More parental involvement and their independent reading benefited boys' self-control and interpersonal skills, but it did not have that benefit for girls. In addition, there were substantial differences in the effects of parental involvement and children's reading activity on children depending on mother's country of origin. The reading and math score of children of East Asian and Southeast Asian mothers benefited from their independent reading activity, whereas the scores of children of Latin-origin mothers benefited from both parental involvement at home and reading activity. For children of Mexican and Caribbean/Central American descent, especially, parental involvement had a continuing significant effect on math and reading scores up to 5th grade. Similarly, compared to other immigrant groups, the social skills of Latin American-origin boys were influenced more by parental involvement at home, and those of Southeast Asian-origin boys were influenced more by reading time at home.Item "I'm not enough of anything!": The racial and ethnic identity constructions and negotiations of one-point-five and second generation Nigerians(2009) Awokoya, Janet Tolulope; Wiseman, Donna L; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)For many African youth, questions of identity are pressing concerns. Many who were born in, but raised outside of their country of origin, known as one-point-five immigrants, and their second generation counterparts (Rong & Brown, 2002), often find themselves at the center of several conflicting cultures. These youth are often challenged in their ability to negotiate and reconcile the varying expectations of their respective racial and ethnic groups. While living in multiple, cultural worlds is the experiences of many minority youth (Phelan et al., 1991), it is uniquely challenging for Black immigrant youth as both their blackness and immigrant background make negotiating their racial and ethnic identities more challenging, than non-black and non-immigrant minority youth. Using qualitative methodology (questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and focus group), this dissertation explored the manner in which eleven, one-point-five and second generation Nigerian college students construct and negotiate their racial and ethnic identities. The research was guided by four broad research questions: (1) How do one-point-five and second generation Nigerian college students describe and experience their interactions with Africans and non-Africans (peers, family, and school personnel)? (2) How do they describe and experience their processes of racial and ethnic identity development? (3) How do their interactions with Africans and non-Africans shape their racial and ethnic identity development? (4) How do they negotiate their racial and ethnic identities among Africans and non-Africans? The results revealed three major findings that characterized the identity experiences of one-point-five and second generation Nigerian immigrants. First, participants often constructed and negotiated their racial and ethnic identities differently within their families, peer groups and the schooling context. Second, participants had to "learn" the meaning of blackness in the U.S. context, which significantly impacted how they experienced their racial identities. Lastly, participants often felt challenged about the authenticity of their Nigerian identity, by both Africans and non-Africans alike. This study provides a significantly more nuanced discussion on the identity constructions and negotiations of one of the fastest growing segments of the diverse black population--African immigrant youth.