Study: The high educational aspirations of visible-minority youth

The higher educational goals set by visible minority immigrant youth appear to be related to the educational values promoted within their families, according to a study originating from the Research Data Centres program and published recently in the Journal of International Migration and Integration.

Data from the Youth in Transition Survey were used to examine differences in the goals for postsecondary education among 15-year-old students.

The study found that 79% of visible-minority immigrant youth aspired to obtain at least one university degree in their future, compared with 57% of Canadian-born non-visible minority students.

It found that the parents of visible-minority immigrant students generally have higher levels of education than their Canadian-born counterparts, and also express more positive hopes for the educational attainment of their children.

About 88% of visible-minority immigrant parents stated that they hoped their children would acquire a university education, while 59% of Canadian-born non-visible minority parents expressed the same goal for their children.

Visible-minority immigrant students also tend to report higher grades and have higher levels of school engagement than Canadian-born students.

Differences in the future educational goals of visible-minority immigrant and Canadian-born students were also found based on gender, region, community size and socio-economic status. However, language first spoken and family structure were not found to be related to differences in the students' educational aspirations.

Note: Data for this study came from the Youth in Transition Survey. The analysis was conducted at the University of Alberta Research Data Centre in Edmonton. The Research Data Centre program is part of an initiative by Statistics Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and university consortia to strengthen Canada's social research capacity. There are 16 centres currently operating at various universities.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 4435.

The article "Resilient teenagers: Explaining the high educational aspirations of visible-minority youth in Canada" has been published in the Summer/Fall 2005 issue of the Journal of International Migration and Integration. To obtain a copy, contact Lenise Levesque (jimi@ualberta.ca), University of Alberta.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of these articles, contact contact Harvey Krahn (780-492-3315), Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

For more information about the Research Data Centre program contact Gustave Goldmann (613-951-1472), Research Data Centre program.