Study Design
Between September 2006 and April 2007, the
Southern Immigrant Academic Adaptation Study (SIAA) collected data from 239 Latino 9th
grade students in North Carolina. Because schools and
students participating in this study were randomly selected, results can be
generalized to 9th grade Latino youth enrolled in high schools in North
Carolina during the 2006-2007 academic year.
To ensure economic variation in the communities in which
Latino youth live, high schools with at least 24 Latino students enrolled in 9th
grade in 2000 were stratified into two groups-urban and rural. Urban high
schools were defined as high schools serving counties where over 50% of the
population was living inside an urbanized area or urban cluster. Rural high
schools were defined as serving counties where 50% or less of the population
lived in an urbanized area or urban cluster. Four high
schools from the urban stratum and five high schools from the rural stratum
were selected using a probability proportional to the number of 9th
grade Latino students in each county.
After receiving active consent from parents, all students in the school who
self-identified as Hispanic or Latino were recruited. All students received a $15 thank-you gift
for their participation in the study.
The students in the study completed a baseline
questionnaire, a take-home questionnaire, and 14 daily diary
checklists. The two questionnaires gathered information regarding
the students' immigration histories, socioeconomic backgrounds,
language use,
family relationships, cultural and ethnic identifications, educational
attitudes, and physical and mental health. The daily diary checklists
were used
to study how students adapt to various challenges and stressors in
their
everyday lives.
In addition to completing questionnaires and daily
diaries, 18 students and their primary caregivers (mostly mothers)
completed in-depth
personal interviews. In-depth personal
interviews were conducted with 2 students (a boy and girl) from each
school. The mothers of these students
were also interviewed. Since the purpose
of the interviews was to gather contextual information about the immigrant
experience, third generation students (defined as both the parent and child being
U.S. born) were
not selected for these in-depth interviews.
All participants in these interviews received an additional $15
thank-you gift.
Finally, focus groups with teachers and non_Latino
students and parents were conducted in 2 rural and 2 urban
schools. These focus groups provided additional information on
the school and community contexts.
