More than a monolith: parental college aspirations, adolescents’ college expectations, and postsecondary enrollment among Asian adolescent immigrants

Studies that are centered around social mobility and educational attainment have shown that educational aspirations and expectations play a critical role in an individual’s future success. However, there are only a few analyses that focused on ethnic minorities or immigrants, particularly among Asian populations. These few studies about Asian American families tend to “lump” Asian immigrants as a monolithic ethnic group. This study seeks to bridge this gap by understanding different educational aspirations among immigrant parents from various Asian subgroups concerning their children’s postsecondary enrollment in the U.S. Utilizing the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), a nationally representative longitudinal data from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), I found that contrary to the monolithic narrative about Asian immigrant families, there are not only different parental characteristics and educational aspirations across Asian subgroups, but there are also different rates of college enrollment among Asian adolescents. Policy implications about the results are discussed.