School adjustment among children of immigrant mothers in Taiwan

Abstract

This study compared children of Southeast Asian immigrant mothers with those of native-born Taiwanese in terms of their school adjustment. A sample comprising 258 adolescents of Southeast Asian immigrant mothers (including mothers from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines) and 769 children of native-born Taiwanese mothers was examined. This study used the item response theory (IRT) approach to develop a school adjustment inventory (SAI). Results showed that adolescents of Southeast Asian immigrant mothers had poorer school adjustment than did adolescents of native Taiwanese mothers. The adolescents of Southeast Asian immigrant mothers gained significantly lower scores for “academic performance” and “teacher-student relationship” than did the adolescents of native Taiwanese mothers. However, the 2 groups did not differ in terms of “learning motivation” and “peer relationship”.