Research Blog #4: Research Proposal

Nathaniel Ladouceur

Professor Goeller

Research in Disciplines: College!

March 20, 2014

Research Proposal

Topic

Going to college is something that is advocated by most parents, teachers, and friends. Although the rewards can be great, there are many challenges students face today when it comes to the whole college experience. Coming from a household with immigrant parents, from personal experience, I have experienced as well as witnessed the advantages and disadvantages that children of immigrants face when it comes to obtaining higher education – disadvantages unique to this group of students. While finances are the most obvious form of adversity when it comes to furthering their education, there are also many other factors to take into account when examining what these students face when it comes to college. Cultural conflicts with their original heritage and the American culture, lack of proper guidance from parents, and struggling to find themselves are a few of these problems that are unique when it comes to this group of students. What I want to explore in my paper are the challenges that the children of immigrants face when it comes to preparing to go to college, the challenges while they are in college, and their post college experiences in the three major problem areas I highlighted.

Research Question

Although all students face challenges when it comes to attaining a college degree, the challenges of the children of immigrants are usually more complicated and numerous. How does the pre-college experience, college experience, and post-college experience of students who were born into an immigrant family compare to the experience of students who were born into U.S. native families and what are the challenges that influence this experience?

Theoretical Frame

The study in the article Dimensions of Acculturation: Associations With Health Risk Behaviors Among College Students From Immigrant Families written by a large number of college professors investigates how acculturation affects the activities the children of immigrants involve themselves in all in attempt to embrace the American culture. The study outlines things such as alcohol use, sexual activities, and drug use as the harmful behaviors that these students potentially partake in.

These behaviors all directly affect just how pleasant and successful the college careers of the students can turn out to be. I plan to draw connections between these behaviors, as well as their financial situation, and how they can influence the experience of many students who come from immigrant households.

Research Plan, Case, or Additional Questions

I plan to draw statistics on first generation students who are from immigrant households as far as acceptance and retention rates, average debt levels, and average family incomes to illustrate the problems they face on a day-to-day basis. I will study how the issue of acculturation gives birth to some of these problems and how the problems they face compare to the problems students from American families face in their college experience. I then want to examine cases of children of immigrants in terms of how they obtain the money to go to college and how their financial situation turns out to be after they graduate.

Literature Review #1

Visual

Citation

Schwartz, Seth;  Weisskirch, Robert S.; Zamboanga, Byron L.; Castillo, Linda G.; Ham, Lindsay S.; Huynh, Que-Lam; Park, Irene J. K.; Donovan, Roxanne; Kim, Su Yeong; Vernon, Michael; Davis, Matthew J.; Cano, Miguel A. "Dimensions of Acculturation: Associations With Health Risk Behaviors Among College Students From Immigrant Families."Journal of Counseling Psychology. 58.1 (2011): 27-41. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

Summary

This article is a study that focuses on acculturation in three areas; cognitive, behavioral, and identification. Observations are made on how race and heritage, along with these three areas in the acculturation, relate to the levels of health-risk behavior taken by people of these groups.

Authors

Seth J. Schwartz, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami

Robert S. Weisskirch, Department of Human Development, California State University–Monterey Bay

Byron L. Zamboanga, Department of Psychology, Smith College

Linda G. Castillo, Matthew J. Davis, and Miguel A. Cano, Department of Counseling Psychology, Texas A&M University

Lindsay S. Ham, Department of Psychology, University of Arkansas

Que-Lam Huynh, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University

Irene J. K. Park, Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame

Roxanne Donovan, Department of Psychology, Kennesaw State University

Su Yeong Kim, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin

Michael Vernon, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts–Amherst.

Key Terms

Acculturation - an individual’s process of learning about and adopting the receiving society’s cultural norms as well as the degree to which the person maintains his or her heritage culture

Immigrant Paradox - more acculturated young immigrants and children of immigrants are more likely to take risks compared with their less acculturated counterparts.

Quotes

"The immigrant paradox (in which more acculturated young immigrants and children of immigrants are more likely to take risks compared with their less acculturated counterparts) can be explained in terms of losing the protective effects that accompany heritage practices and values."(11)

"...for the most part, adopting U.S. cultural practices and individualistic values is not problematic as long as practices and values from the heritage culture are retained."(11)

Value

This article studies an area where many children of immigrants are heavily affected - especially when going away to college. It indirectly shows that the forces of heritage culture and acculturation to american culture can prove to be detrimental to the success of many of these second-generation students in the college setting if not balanced. Balancing the two can prove to be difficult when not surrounded by all the people who are of the same heritage as themselves and no family to keep them grounded. The article also provides numbers on the percentage of these students that are engaging in these risky behaviors and reasons as to why they do what they do.

Research Blog Post #3 : Privatization

Privatization of resources in higher education connects to my topic in a negative way - it makes attaining the "american dream" harder for children of immigrants. Hamilton and Armstrong point this out when speaking of the ideal conditions for college to be an opportunity for class mobility for under privileged students. They write at one point "Less privileged students benefit when tuition costs are low, financial aid is adequate, and it takes the form of grants rather than loans..."(Armstrong and Hamilton 17). Privatization makes loans more readily available while other forms of aid dwindle and even then, many loans require good credit - something underprivileged immigrants most likely wouldn't have. As for the students who are able to obtain these funds, it puts a heavy strain on their college career and in most cases their post college experience as well.

Research Blog #2: Scouting the Territory

Where do I stand on my topic idea?

My topic idea has not really changed since Blog #1. After reading Paying for the Party and Walden on Wheels, I became extremely interested in seeing if we are the only country dealing with the sort of problems students faced in these stories in terms of the effect social class and debt has on the overall experience. I may, however, choose to somehow incorporate the college experience form the point of view of a minority or first-generation student - something I feel was underrepresented in the readings.

What I found online

I mostly found statistics on graduation and college acceptance rates for first generation college students. However, I was looking for a more specific type of student - students who are born in America but have immigrant parents. It helped to use search terms such as "acculturation" and "immigrant students".

Important Articles

"Dimensions of Acculturation: Associations With Health Risk Behaviors Among College Students From Immigrant Families" 

"Gender, Ethnicity, and Acculturation in Intergenerational Conflict of Asian American College Students"

Ideas from the search

Acculturation seems to be a big theme in many articles that relate to my topic. I may dedicate a portion of my paper to this issue.

Resources uncovered

http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com/sp-3.11.0a/ovidweb.cgi?WebLinkFrameset=1&S=NKHHFPIMMODDJOCGNCMKPBMCNNJJAA00&returnUrl=ovidweb.cgi%3fMain%2bSearch%2bPage%3d1%26S%3dNKHHFPIMMODDJOCGNCMKPBMCNNJJAA00&directlink=http%3a%2f%2fgraphics.tx.ovid.com%2fovftpdfs%2fFPDDNCMCPBCGMO00%2ffs046%2fovft%2flive%2fgv023%2f00001192%2f00001192-201101000-00009.pdf&filename=Dimensions+of+Acculturation%3a+Associations+With+Health+Risk+Behaviors+Among+College+Students+From+Immigrant+Families.&link_from=S.sh.22%7c1&pdf_key=FPDDNCMCPBCGMO00&pdf_index=/fs046/ovft/live/gv023/00001192/00001192-201101000-00009

This article is almost perfect as a resource for my topic. It provides statistics and situations directly from first generation immigrant college students.

http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com/sp-3.11.0a/ovidweb.cgi?QS2=434f4e1a73d37e8c740ce3cde7a33785331da58310a1c7f330f2c871c33ff3a0b0e1ee9e631d570a4208df98a9e52a87ff606c115a36297281498cc4213032cc00591766daf049a38ca907d67f92ee233f5556b1f4a7d058139151b37ad7bb65b8fff7dd6b8fb0a8748c7ccb22ec0e625be562098a19c11453e3d42c2ba7236eada281f4309b9dfcaa02a875c354a74922cf93c37e22bf1b11b473a71494bece868762bd93bf3295bd195da60f62095b08a5900b0fceccc9d3d668686d326d869f75082dc545e545dbe0f3abb78049d82ac560879192ea848905b2fa46d7875f8e6db8c88a981a524620567841016ba85bef6a3907fffc2f6a336b9c57ffe81e0fd2e4a40ff1881565863a61a61304680ffd3a2c753426c077befba752dddca362a3ae8f2646522318904fa1c84d83ffa105760d9c6a990b6a87b28f7fa22270ecb9aeddb373605bb2aa6d1af4d79f0744888104b958daa356d0270c523613f12abc8b05690f1926fa0af967482a0d18c2d8bf9d07e911a2565aa40a57111aa99eb56e3367ec661cdb5821fec0936c93

This article also provides more in terms of research and statistics.

Controversies

I have not yet found any controversies involving my topic.