In particular, the findings indicated the relative importance of adolescents' educational aspirations in accounting for immigrant status differences in young adults' educational attainment. While previous investigations have examined ethnic/race group differences in aspirations (e.g., Buchmann and Dalton, 2002; Cheng and Starks, 2002; [KEVIN MARJORIBANKS], 2002) there have been few analyses of the relationships among immigrant family context, adolescents' aspirations, and young adults' attainment (see Kao and Tienda, 1998). When investigations have examined associations between aspirations and academic outcomes they have tended to adopt one of two unidirectional models (see Goldenberg et al., 2001). The first is the 'aspiration-driven' model, which suggests that the primary relationship is reflected in the influence that aspirations have on achievement. In contrast, the 'performance-driven' model proposes that differences in academic performance cause variations in aspirations. The present analysis indicates that while educational aspirations had the largest associations with attainment scores, adolescents' academic achievement continued to be related to young adults' attainment after taking into account differences in aspirations. In addition, there were indications that aspirations were related differently to the educational attainment of young adults from various immigrant family contexts. That is, the results support the claim of Kao and Tienda (1998) that it is important to understand "how minority aspirations translate into poor outcomes for some but not others" (1998: 360). As a result, it might be appropriate to consider a more complete aspiration-performance model. Perhaps such a framework might be labeled as the 'family context x aspirations x performance' model to reflect the ongoing and different interactions among aspirations and performance measures for individuals from various family contexts.

Year 9 and 10 students completed schedules indicating how they perceived their school learning environments. The first scale consisted of 30 items with four-point Likert-type response formats. Items were of the form, My school is a place where: 'teachers help me to do my best,' 'I know I can do well enough to be successful,' and 'the work I do is good preparation for my future.' In the first follow-up study, the Year 10 students' perceptions of schools were measured by asking them to rate schools on 14 items in five-point Likert-type format. Items were of the form 'My teachers are well prepared and organized,' 'Students are eager to learn,' and Teachers are able to communicate with students.' The alpha reliability estimates of the two school learning environment scales were 0.77 and 0.75, respectively.

Marjoribanks examined the impact of environmental and individual influences on immigrant children's eventual educational attainment. In the analysis, relationships were studied among distal family contexts, proximal learning settings, individual characteristics, and the educational attainment of young adults form Australian immigrant families.

Minority & ethnic groups
Families & family life
Models