Table 3.
Educational and social background characteristics of the study sample by English fluency ratio group
| Characteristics | Spanish-dominant (n=102) | Relative Bilingual (n=68) | pa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Educational Background | |||
| Years of education in country of origin, M(SD) | 8.0 (3.8) | 9.0 (5.2) | .19 |
| Years of education in the U.S., M(SD) | 0.3 (1.1) | 3.9 (4.5) | <.001 |
| Proportion of education by country | -- | -- | <.001 |
| More years of education in country of origin | 97.1% | 73.5% | -- |
| More years of education in the U.S. | 2.0% | 25.0 | -- |
| Equal number of years of education in both countries | .98% | 1.47 | -- |
| Type of school attendedb | -- | -- | .01 |
| Large | 48.5% | 58.8% | -- |
| Regular | 43.6% | 41.2% | -- |
| Small | 7.9% | 0.00% | -- |
| Number of students in the class | -- | -- | .10 |
| Less than 21 | 6.9% | 8.8% | -- |
| 21 to 30 | 32.7% | 50.0% | -- |
| 31 to 40 | 30.7% | 22.1% | -- |
| 40+ | 29.7% | 19.1% | -- |
| Had to stop attending school to work (Yes) | 41.2% | 17.6% | <.001 |
| Social Background | |||
| Mother’s years of education, M(SD) | 4.7 (3.5) | 7.4 (3.3) | <.001 |
| Father’s years of education, M(SD) | 5.4 (4.6) | 9.2 (4.9) | <.001 |
| Years lived in country of origin, M(SD) | 29.5 (9.9) | 25.3 (14.1) | .03 |
| Years living in the U.S., M(SD) | 7.9 (8.5) | 11.4 (10.3) | .02 |
| Childhood SES | -- | -- | <.01 |
| Very poor | 7.8% | 2.9% | -- |
| Poor | 34.3% | 14.7% | -- |
| Middle class | 52.9% | 64.7% | -- |
| Upper class | 4.9% | 17.6% | -- |
| Worked as a child (Yes) | 64.7% | 46.3% | .02 |
| Reason to work | -- | -- | .001 |
| Help family financially | 45.2% | 15.4% | -- |
| Own benefit | 54.8% | 84.6% | -- |
| Age started working as a child, M(SD) | 12.7 (3.2) | 14.6 (1.9) | <.001 |
| Currently Gainfully Employed (Yes) | 65.3% | 61.2% | .58 |
Note. M: mean; SD: standard deviation.
a
Represents results from independent samples t-tests and Chi-Square tests between the Lower and Higher English fluency group
b
Type of school attended: ‘large’ refers to large school that had many classrooms and room to play); “regular’ refers to a school of regular size that had at least one classroom per grade and room to play; and small school refers to a small school with less than one classroom per grade.