Children's school enjoyment and satisfaction with their teachers is crucial to their quality of life. Still, we have little knowledge about what shapes positive outcomes in this respect, and to what extent groups of children and youth differ from each other. This article compares immigrant children with Norwegian children from low-income families and with a reference group of children from normal-income families. The children were interviewed at age 10-12 years, and again at age 13-15 years; thus, we can follow changes over time. Immigrant children from income-poor families express significantly higher school and teacher satisfaction than any other category of 10-12-year-olds. However, for the 13-15-year-olds, there are no systematic differences between group averages, but there are more signs of polarisation among low-income immigrant children. Explanations for these patterns are sought in the literature on social capital in immigrant families. © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare.

Children's school satisfaction Immigrants in Norway poverty

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