The Home Environments of Adolescents Whose Parents Legally Immigrated to the United States: Findings from the New Immigrant Survey

Adolescent well-being depends on the quality of their experiences at home. Data from the New Immigrant Survey were used to describe the home environments of 982 children ages 10–17 whose parents legally immigrated to the United States. Thirty-four indicators of home conditions were clustered into 5 domains: (1) discipline and socio-emotional support, (2) learning materials, (3) enriching experiences, (4) family activities, and (5) expectations. Results revealed variation in how frequently adolescents experienced each home environmental condition. As expected, there were differences in the likelihood an adolescent would have most—but not all—experiences connected with home life based on parents’ level of education. The home experiences documented for children of recent legal immigrants were similar to those documented for children of native-born families in other studies.