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Promoting Positive School Climate among Newcomer Immigrant Adolescents

Subcontract

Research Team

Name

Principal Investigator: Lorey Wheeler

Funding Information

Funding Agency: Spencer Foundation

Subcontract from: Columbia University

Award Date: Jun 1, 2021

End Date: May 31, 2023

Abstract

* This project is funded by a subcontract from Columbia University.

Newcomer immigrant adolescents (NIA) are a large and growing population who face a number of risk factors for the development of academic and social emotional concerns.

School climate is regarded as a critical mechanism that can protect NIA from experiences of risk and positively impact academic and social emotional functioning. But past research examining school climate among immigrant youth has been plagued by inconsistencies in conceptualization, contradictory findings and methodological shortcomings, thereby limiting the ability to provide specific recommendations for developing targeted interventions to improve school climate.

This study addresses that gap by identifying culturally and developmentally specific aspects of NIA perceptions of school climate and determining how these indicators relate to academic and social emotional outcomes among NIA. Researchers will use a sequential mixed-methods approach to bring into focus the realities of school climate for NIA by accounting for youth voices through both qualitative and quantitative methods, in addition to conducting an objective artifact analysis of school documents.

The study will also identify profiles of school climate among NIA and determine whether the school climate profiles relate to individual academic and social emotional outcomes among this understudied group.


Social, Emotional and Behavioral Well-being

Researchers are exploring how newcomer immigrant adolescents perceive school climate — and how those perceptions affect their academic and social-emotional outcomes.
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