Caribbean Immigrant Youths’ Ethnic Identity and Academic Achievement: The Role of Academic Beliefs

Ethnic identity (EI) can facilitate racially and ethnically marginalized youths’ academic achievement but the mediating process by which it exerts its influence is unclear. This study examines how EI is associated with academic achievement through academic beliefs in a sample of Caribbean first and second generation immigrant adolescents whose identities are connected to cultural groups outside of the U.S. Youth ( N = 128; 12–18 years old, M = 16.32, SD = 1.81; 69.3% second generation; 58.6% Black) reported on their EI affirmation and belonging and EI achievement, academic self-efficacy, academic aspirations, and grades. Results of our serial mediation model showed that stronger EI achievement was associated with higher academic self-efficacy and in turn higher academic aspirations, and higher grades. These findings offer potential targets (i.e., academic self-beliefs) for supporting the academic success of Black and Hispanic Caribbean immigrant students and have implications for their boosting educational outcomes.

Knowledge Growth, Academic Beliefs and Motivation of Students in Business and Economics - A longitudinal German Case Study

In this study we examine the determinants of and the relationship among economic knowledge, epistemological beliefs, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation over the course of undergraduate studies in a sample of students of business and economics at a university in Germany. We found economic knowledge increased over the course of studies, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation declined, and students became more skeptical in their epistemological beliefs about the objectivity of economic content being taught in their courses. The students’ level of economic knowledge was related to intrinsic motivation but unrelated to extrinsic motivation and epistemological beliefs. Furthermore, the students’ tendency to become more skeptical over the course of their studies was mitigated by high levels of extrinsic motivation. The use of internationally established assessments such as the Test of Economic Literacy, developed by the Council of Economics Education, enables implications for higher education business and economics programs at the international level to be drawn from our findings.

The Role of Parental Education, Household Income, and Race on Parents’ Academic Beliefs and the Provision of Home Learning Opportunities for 4- to 8-Year-Old Children

Previous research has highlighted the importance of parents’ education, household income, and race for children’s academic achievement. In addition, these factors relate to their beliefs about their children’s academic achievement and their provision of opportunities to strengthen learning. However, direct comparisons of the unique roles of parents’ education, household income, and race are rare and the current study seeks to fill this gap. A heterogeneous sample of 398 parents of 4- to 8-year-old children in the US completed a survey assessing beliefs about the importance of math and reading/writing for their child, how frequently they provided learning opportunities in these skill sets at home, and demographic information. We found that parents’ education was significantly related to their beliefs about the school’s importance in teaching their child math, but when splitting our sample by race, this effect was only significant for White non-Hispanic parents. No significant effects were found for parents’ education on their beliefs about the importance of the school or home in teaching their child reading/writing. In addition, we found that household income was significantly related to parents’ beliefs about the school’s but not the home’s importance in teaching their child math. Finally, household income was found to be significantly related to parents’ beliefs about the home’s but not the school’s importance in teaching their child reading/writing, but this effect was only significant for African American parents. These results suggest that parents’ education and income play different roles in determining parents’ beliefs about the importance of the school or the home in teaching math and reading/writing to their child and these relations were modulated by race.