Recentering our tendencies: Immigrant youth development and the importance of context in social work research

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-17-2016

Abstract

Complex historic and structural constraints disproportionally disadvantage many low-income immigrant youth in the United States. This conceptual article summarizes scholarship on how local context influences their development and argues that the social work profession needs to attend to the diverse settings where immigrant youth are coming of age to design effective interventions. We use three recent studies of different environmental contexts—urban neighborhoods, suburban municipalities, and high school classrooms—to illustrate how they influence the trajectories of immigrant youth. We argue that the social work profession needs to recenter the person-in-environment perspective toward more context-focused interventions to support immigrant youth. We conclude with areas for further research to advance the profession’s understanding of immigrant youth development.

DOI

10.1080/10911359.2015.1091243

Publication Title

Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment

Volume Number

26

Issue Number

6

First Page

509

Last Page

520

ISSN

10911359

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS