Sociology Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-13-2026
Abstract
This study examines how parental legal status operates as a fundamental social determinant of health and educational equity, focusing on long-term outcomes among U.S.-born and foreign-born children of immigrants. We hypothesized that intergenerational stress and institutional exclusion associated with undocumented status would lead to lower educational attainment and poorer health. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a nationally representative cohort, participants were classified by inferred parental legal status: native-born, documented immigrant, and undocumented immigrant. Outcomes included high school graduation, college enrollment, depression scores, and chronic health conditions. Children of undocumented parents exhibited the most adverse outcomes—lower graduation (63.8%) and college enrollment rates (39.9%), higher depression, and greater chronic illness. In models controlling for socioeconomic factors, parental undocumented status independently predicted reduced odds of college enrollment (OR = 0.61, p < 0.001) and increased odds of reporting fair/poor health (OR = 2.10, p < 0.001). Findings highlight legal precarity as a potent driver of intergenerational disadvantage and underscore the need for policies addressing the barriers faced by children in undocumented families to promote health and educational equity.
Recommended Citation
Ryabov, Igor. "The Intergenerational Impact of Parental Immigration Status: Educational and Health Outcomes Among Children of Undocumented Immigrants." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 23, no. 1 (2026): 108. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph23010108
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
DOI
10.3390/ijerph23010108
Comments
© 2026 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.