-Daily stress due to socioeconomic status

• Takes child away from the activity of learning (Cohen, 1993)
• Parents are less likely to participate


-Expend most of their energy in survival and basic child care (Lerman, 1984)

• Parents’ occupation tends to be transmitted to child—Certain occupations considered appropriate, others perceived as beyond the child’s means and capabilities (Cohen, 1993)
• Educational courses leading to upward mobility often viewed as unrealistic (Cohen, 1993)
• Parents often think to "do well" in school means to be obedient and respectable—as opposed to inquisitive and competitive (Cohen, 1993)
• Parents want children "to learn a profession,…to earn enough to be able to eat, to learn English, to work, to be happy, to do something useful"(Jackson-Maldonado, 1993)
• Immigrant parent often sees school as an alien institution that is sometimes puzzling, often difficult to deal with , and possibly even feared (Fischgrund, Cohen, & Clarkson, 1987)
• Child often viewed by parents as sole responsibility of school authorities while in the school setting (Cohen, 1993)
• Often considered rude for a parent to intrude into the life of the school (Espinosa, 1995)
• Education is not viewed as a collaborative process -- Parents’ only job is to nurture, not to educate (Espinosa, 1995)

-Cultural variables

• Pronounced gender division: mother conducts relations with the school and father makes final decisions—Often not understood by educators: leads to breakdown in communication (Cohen, 1993)
• Different expectations for male and female children in Hispanic families (Fischgrund, Cohen, & Clarkson, 1987):
-Males: Thought to be driven by inborn malice and sexual energy

-- Teachers may find this behavior unacceptable
-Females: Viewed as helpless and needing protection

-- Teachers may consider discipline to be unnecessary or out of proportion
• Children dependent much longer than in mainstream culture—May lead to unspoken conflict between teacher and parent regarding age of independence (Fischgrund, Cohen, & Clarkson, 1987)
• Unique emotional attachment to language—Child’s status in school setting affected by presence or absence of interpreting and translating services (Cohen, 1993)
• Physical contact -- extremely important to Hispanic population
-When close contact is not established, it is a sign of distance and difference -- Children may also interpret it as rejection
-U.S. classrooms: teachers told to keep physical contact to a minimum because of possible lawsuits (Jackson-Maldonado, 1993)