The influence of stereotype threat on immigrants: review and meta-analysis

Abstract

In many regions around the world students with certain immigrant backgrounds underachieve in educational settings. This paper provides a review and meta-analysis on one potential source of the immigrant achievement gap: stereotype threat, a situational predicament that may prevent students to perform up to their full abilities. A meta-analysis of 19 experiments suggests an overall mean effect size of 0.63 (random effects model) in support of stereotype threat theory. The results are complemented by moderator analyses with regard to circulation (published or unpublished research), cultural context (US versus Europe), age of immigrants, type of stereotype threat manipulation, dependent measures, and means for identification of immigrant status; evidence on the role of ethnic identity strength is reviewed. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

The interaction of vertical collectivism and stereotype activation on the performance of Turkish-origin high school students

“…First, our study expands previous stereotype threat literature (e.g., Appel, Weber, & Kronberger, 2015;Martiny & Götz, 2011;Nguyen & Ryan, 2008) by showing that vertical collectivism can influence stereotype threat effects. This interaction effect might help explain the heterogeneous effect sizes of stereotype threat effects reported in meta-analyses (e.g., Nguyen & Ryan, 2008).…”

“…We contribute to the existing research literature on stereotype threat effects for migrants (e.g., Appel et al, 2015;Froehlich, Martiny, Deaux, Goetz, et al, 2016;Martiny et al, 2015) by revealing that vertical collectivism interacts with the activation of negatives stereotypes on performance and individual mobility motivation. Our findings are also relevant to work on the relationship between individual differences in student characteristics and achievement-related outcomes (e.g., Jurik et al, 2014) revealing that migrant students with high vertical collectivism endorsement suffer from stereotype threat effects.…”

Being smart or getting smarter: Implicit theory of intelligence moderates stereotype threat and stereotype lift effects

“…Apart from the well-established stereotype threat effects for African-Americans (e.g., Brown & Day, 2006;Steele & Aronson, 1995), relatively little work has investigated stereotype threat effects for immigrants (Appel, Weber, & Kronberger, 2015). One exception is Deaux et al (2007), who investigated stereotype threat for West Indian immigrants in the United States.…”

Measurement Invariance and Latent Mean Differences in the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales (RIAS): Does the German Version of the RIAS Allow a Valid Assessment of Individuals with a Migration Background?

“…However, individuals with a migration background also showed lower test performance in nonverbal intelligence. Existing literature suggests that not only language barriers but also cultural and environmental differences such as familiarity with tasks used in intelligence tests [11, 12], stereotype threat [13, 18], and parental language skills [14] can contribute to lower test performance in individuals with a migration background [10], which also might have led to the lower test scores of individuals with a migration background in the verbal and nonverbal intelligence indexes in the present study. In sum, the results of the present study indicate that using the German version of the RIAS may lead to underestimated intelligence test scores in individuals with a migration background.…”

“…For example, individuals with a migration background may be less familiar with the type of tasks used in performance assessment [11, 12]. In addition, many immigrant groups are confronted with negative achievement stereotypes, which may create increased performance pressure [13]. Furthermore, studies have shown that immigrant children’s parents who have limited language skills in the dominant language are less involved in schooling, which in turn may negatively affect their children’s performance [14, 15].…”