1) The document discusses a study on the relationship between minority parents' participation in Dutch society and their children's educational outcomes. 2) The study uses data from over 10,000 children and their parents to examine how factors like parental ethnicity, education, labor participation, and cultural participation correlate with children's language, math, and social skills. 3) The results find a consistent positive effect of parents' cultural participation (e.g. attending concerts and museums) on children's language and math abilities, supporting the idea that cultural capital benefits children's education. However, the hypothesis that greater parental participation broadly leads to better child outcomes is only partially confirmed.

1. Integration, participation, and
education: effects of minority
parents’ societal participation
on their children’s cognitive
and non-cognitive
competencies
Dr. Geert Driessen
Dr. Frederik Smit
ITS, Radboud University Nijmegen
Contact: www.geertdriessen.nl
Paper ERNAPE conference
14–16 September 2005, Oviedo (ES)

2. Three categories:
• former colonies (e.g., Surinamese: 325,000,
Antillean: 131,000)
• labor immigrants (e.g., Turkish: 352,000;
Moroccan: 306,000)
• refugees/asylum seekers (e.g., Iran, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Yugoslavia)
Characteristics:
• differences with respect to language, culture,
religion (Islam)
• many illiterate, little education, no job,
on social welfare; overrepresentation in crime
statistics
1. Ethnic minorities in the Netherlands
Non-Western immigrants 10% of the Dutch
population of 16.5 million

3. Since 1980s: ‘integration with maintenance
of own culture’
Since 2001: increased negative view on
immigration
Shift towards assimilation: compulsory
integration; accent on one’s own
responsibility
Goal: shared citizenship immigrants and
native inhabitants
Willingness to actively contribute to society
and participate in all facets of society:
education (diploma); labor market (job);
social (membership in associations);
political (voting); cultural; societal (volunteer
work); sports
2. Integration policy in the NL

4. Integration pertains to immigrants
themselves and also to their children.
Better integrated immigrant parents →
more favorable educational and societal
opportunities for their children.
Integration policy emphasizes the
responsibility of immigrant parents.
Expectations derived from notions of social
and cultural capital (Bourdieu, Coleman).
More parental participation → greater social
and cultural capital → positively influences
child-rearing situation, educational and
societal opportunities of their children.
3. Participation, capital, and
educational opportunity

5. Study of immigrant background,
participation, and educational results in
conjunction with each other.
“What relations exist between parental
participation and the cognitive and non-
cognitive educational outcomes of their
children?”
Answer → empirical support for the position
held by the Dutch government with respect
to ‘participation as capital’?
4. Research question

6. Cohort study Primary Education (‘PRIMA’).
583 or 9% of all Dutch primary schools.
10,680 children in kindergarten (6 years of
age) and their parents.
Data sources: parents, pupils, teachers,
schools
5. Data and variables

7. 6. Model
Family structural
 parental ethnicity
 parental education
 parental length of
residence
Aspects of participation
 labor
 religious
 political
 societal
 social
 cultural
Cognitive outcome measures
 language skill
 math skill
Non-cognitive outcome measures
 social position
 self-confidence
 well-being

8. 7. Ethnicity, participation,
and effect measures bivariately
Ethnicity
Dutch Sur/Ant Tur/Mor Other eta
Participation
Labor
% paid work 87 54 49 52 .38
Religious
% (practically) never 58 36 15 45 .31
% few times a year 24 44 17 25 .11
% 1-3 times a month 9 13 20 13 .12
% 1 times a week 9 7 48 16 .39
Political
% no times 21 45 43 58 .28
% one time 12 17 26 17 .14
% two times 67 38 30 25 .33
Societal
% volunteer work 28 12 12 14 .16
Social
% 0 48 63 48 65 .10
% 1 47 32 42 30 .11
% 2 5 5 9 5 .06
Cultural
% never 14 15 73 24 .49
% <1 a year 42 60 18 47 .20
% 1 a year 30 16 8 21 .19
% 2 a year 13 9 1 9 .14
Effect measures
Language 987 967 952 969 .36
Math 57 50 47 52 .28
Social position 3.8 3.7 3.7 3.7 .12
Self-confidence 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 .02
Well-being 4.1 4.0 4.0 4.0 .05

9. Language Model
0 1 2 3 4
B sig
.
B sig
.
B sig. B sig.
Regression coefficients
Ethnicity
Dutch = reference
Sur/Ant -15.7 ** -13.3 ** -13.3 **
Tur/Mor -25.4 ** -21.4 ** -21.4 **
Other -15.7 ** -12.1 ** -12.1 **
Education
Primary -17.1 ** -12.1 ** -12.1 **
Vocational -12.8 ** -9.0 ** -9.0 **
Professional -6.7 ** -4.5 ** -4.5 **
College = reference
Participation
Labor 6.9 ** 3.7 * 3.7 *
Religious -3.2 ** -.7 -.7
Political 3.6 ** 2.0 ** 2.0 **
Societal 4.2 ** 2.3 2.3
Social .2 .4 .4
Cultural 5.2 ** 2.4 ** 2.4 **
Interactions E/E x P .0 n.s.
Variance components
Pupil level (%) 80.9 6.4 4.3 +.9 +.7
School level (%) 19.1 54.0 36.9 +1.1 +1.3
Total (%) 15.5 ** 10.5 ** +.9 * +.8 n.s.
8. Ethnicity, education, participation,
and effect measures multivariately

10. 9. Conclusions and discussion
Hypothesis: participation indication of
integration; greater parental integration
promotes a more favorable educational
position for their children.
Only a consistent effect of cultural
participation on language and math skills.
‘High brow’ cultural participation: regular
attendance of concerts, films, and museums.
Confirmation of cultural capital thesis.
Assumption with regard to chances of
immigrant children receive only partial
confirmation. Expectations have been
stretched too high and greater realism is
called for.