Full Citation
Title: National Profile of Latino Parents’ Educational Attainment Underscores the Diverse Educational Needs of a Fast-growing Population
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2023
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ISSN:
DOI: 10.59377/665J6906G
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Abstract: Education plays a key role in facilitating socioeconomic mobility in the United States, both for individuals and for their children. Parents’ educational backgrounds are associated with their children’s life outcomes, including the children’s educational attainment and occupational success later in life.1 While the educational attainment of Black and White parents has been well-studied—along with this metric’s relationship to their children’s later educational and life outcomes—much less is known about the educational attainment of Latinoa parents. Yet Latino children represent the largest racial and ethnic minority group among children in the United States today, as well as a growing segment of the country’s future labor market, economy, and citizenry.2 Understanding the educational attainment of Latino parents is critical to understanding Latino families’ needs and how school systems can better support and engage them. It may also highlight challenges and opportunities in the U.S. educational (e.g., student retention and success), labor market (e.g., occupational segregation), and social safety net systems (e.g., job training and skill development programs). This brief presents the first national portrait of the educational attainment of Latino children’s parents. We begin by comparing the parental education profiles of Latino children with at least one U.S.-born parent to those who live with immigrant-only parent(s). We do this for three reasons: First, while more than 90 percent of Latino children today were born in the United States, roughly half have a parent who is an immigrant.3 Second, the educational experiences of individuals differ based on where they completed their education. Third, children with parents born in the United States presumably have at least one parent who attended school in the United States and who is familiar with the U.S. education system.4,5 Following this comparison, we focus our analysis on the economic diversity within the Latino population. In this section, we examine how parental education levels vary with parental income: Parental education may be even more important for children in low-income families by serving as a conduit for economic mobility. Finally, we explore differences in the educational profiles of Hispanic children’s parents by elements of heterogeneity within the Latino population: parents’ country of heritage, English language proficiency, citizenship status, and time lived in the United States. Our analyses draw on one-year data from the 2019 American Community Survey.
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Authors: Ryberg, Renee; Guzman, Lina
Publisher:
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Race and Ethnicity, Work, Family, and Time
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