The Effect of Participation in Adult Education on Life Satisfaction of Immigrants and Natives: A Longitudinal Analysis

Abstract

AbstractBeyond formal education, continuing adult learning and education (ALE) is considered as successful means for supporting immigrants’ integration into the receiving society. Although recently, subjective parameters of immigrants’ integration (e.g., life satisfaction) have received increasing academic attention, research on the impact of education on subjective integration indicators is still rare. To address this, the present study contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of ALE participation on life satisfaction in a longitudinal design. The study compares the effect for the group of immigrants with the group of natives in order to estimate whether the potential education effect on life satisfaction is equally strong for both groups or stronger for the group of immigrants (interaction effect). For this, the study uses seven waves of panel data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) with N = 6386 individuals, of which N = 1002 individuals have a migration background. Methodologically, a Random Intercepts Cross-Lagged Panel Model is applied. This allows distinguishing within-person fluctuations from trait-like between-person differences. On the between-person level, we find a significant link between ALE participation and life satisfaction for both immigrants and natives. However, on the within-person level, no significant cross-lagged effects are observed. Moreover, we find no support for an immigrant-native gap in life satisfaction.