Socioeconomic status, culture, and reading comprehension in immigrant students

Research on reading comprehension in immigrant students is heterogeneous and conflicting. Differences in socioeconomic status and cultural origins are very likely confounds in determining whether differences to native pupils can be attributed to immigrant status. We collected data on 312 Spanish stu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ibáñez Alfonso, Joaquín A., Hernández Cabrera, Juan Andrés, Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni, Estébez Monzó, Adelina, Macizo Soria, Pedro, Bajo Molina, María Teresa, Fuentes Melero, Luis José, Saldaña Sage, David
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/128340
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/128340
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.752273
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:reading comprehension
immigrants
socioeconomic status
second language learners
culture
Spanish
Descripción
Sumario:Research on reading comprehension in immigrant students is heterogeneous and conflicting. Differences in socioeconomic status and cultural origins are very likely confounds in determining whether differences to native pupils can be attributed to immigrant status. We collected data on 312 Spanish students of Native, of Hispanic origin–therefore with the same family language as native students- and Non-Hispanic origin, while controlling for socioeconomic status, non-verbal reasoning and school membership. We measured reading comprehension, knowledge of syntax, sentence comprehension monitoring, and vocabulary. Differences among groups appeared only in vocabulary and syntax (with poorer performance in the non-Hispanic group), with no differences in reading comprehension. However, regression analyses showed that most of the variability in reading comprehension was predicted by age, socioeconomic status, non-verbal reasoning, and comprehension monitoring. Group membership did not significantly contribute to explain reading comprehension variability. The present study supports the idea that socioeconomically disadvantaged students, both native and immigrants from diverse cultural backgrounds, irrespective of the language of origin, are probably equally at risk of poor reading comprehension.