Adolescent immigrants - what helps them to stay out of trouble?

A study of 1,081 adolescent, ethnically German immigrants from Russia and Kazakhstan found that about 10% of them experienced severe difficulties settling into life in Germany. They felt discriminated against in various aspects of their lives and failed at school. However, there were a few young people who functioned surprisingly well and the researchers set out to find which factors lay behind this. Financial assets, language competence and a shorter residence in Germany all protected against delinquency. The level of education of the children's fathers was also found to have an effect but the more educated the father was the more likely the children were to have problems. The researchers speculated that this might be because of the problems educated fathers experienced working in jobs below their intellectual capabilities.

Schmitt-Rodermund, Eva and Silbereisen, Rainer K. - Well-adapted adolescent ethnic German immigrants in spite of adversity: the protective effects of human, social and financial capital European Journal of Developmental Psychology March 2008, 5(2), 186-209