Educational Progress and Parenting Among Mexican Immigrant Mothers of Young Children

This study examined the potential for educational investments in Mexican immigrant mothers to enhance their management of their children's pathways through an educational system in the U.S. that often disadvantages them. We tested this hypothesis with data on 816 Mexican immigrant women and their children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). The results suggest that mothers who pursued their own schooling over a four year period, regardless of degree attainment, increased their engagement with their children's schools during that same period. These results appeared to be robust to a wide range of factors selecting women into continuing education.