Promoting Academic Success Among Latino Youths

Abstract

This article describes results from the Oregon Latino Youth Survey, which was designed to identify factors that promoted or hindered academic success for Latino middle- and high-school youngsters. The study samples included a total of 564 Latino and non-Latino students and parents. Analyses showed that Latino students reported a high frequency of discriminatory experiences and institutional barriers at school, and that they and their parents were more likely to experience institutional barriers compared to non-Latinos. Further, Latino students and parents reported that they/their youngsters were more likely to dropout of school compared to non-Latinos. Path models showed lower acculturation and more institutional barriers were related to less academic success for Latino students. More parent academic encouragement and staff extracurricular encouragement were associated with better academic outcomes for Latino students. Finally, family socioeconomic disadvantage had an indirect effect on Latino youngster academic success, through effects on parent monitoring and school involvement.

A longitudinal examination of parenting behaviors and perceived discrimination predicting Latino adolescents' ethnic identity.

“…In line with these ideas, Cross's (1995) seminal work on racial identity formation indicates that experiences such as discrimination can prompt processes of exploration regarding one's identity, which ultimately inform one's identity. Because existing empirical work with Latino youth (i.e., Puerto Rican, Dominican, Caribbean, Central American, and South American) has established that discrimination is a significant reality for Latino youth (Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000;Martinez, DeGarmo, & Eddy, 2004;Rosenbloom & Way, 2004), examining its potential influence on ethnic identity formation is critical. To our knowledge, one study that included a subsample of predominately Puerto Rican and Dominican Latino adolescents (i.e., Pahl & Way, 2006) has examined the longitudinal association between perceived discrimination and ethnic identity.…”

A Review about Parenting Style and Parenting Practices and Their Consequences in Disabled and Non Disabled Children

“…In spite of that, the relevance obtained for these attitudes and expectations can be considered as one more step in the study of these complex relations and, above all, parenting practices which permit to speak about behaviours and particular performances which are behind many of the problems that are currently presented in children in both the school and family environments (p.e. Aunola & Nurmi, 2005;Gordon & Louis, 2009;Knutson et al, 2004;Martínez Jr. et al, 2004;McCoy et al, 1999).…”

“…Different studies have shown that homework supervision is related to a good elaboration and so, the academic success (Martínez Jr., DeGarmo & Eddy, 2004;Muller & Kerbow, 1993). …”

Parental Absence and Academic Achievement in Immigrant Students

“…Economic hardship has been linked to student academic achievement via school context (Suarez-Orozco & Carhill, 2008;Valencia, 2000) and parental school involvement (Martinez et al, 2004). Economic hardship has been reported to coexist among other risk factors as well, such as single parenthood and high crime neighborhoods (Suarez-Orozco & Carhill).…”

“…These include gender of the student (Crul & Vermeulen, 2003;Portes & Rumbaut, 2001;Suarez-Orozco & Qin-Hilliard, 2004;Suarez-Orozco & Carhill, 2008;Suarez-Orozco et al, 2009;Way, 2004), difficulties with the English language (Genesee & Gandara, 1999;Hernandez, 2004;Suarez-Orozco & Carhill;Suarez-Orozco et al, 2009), a problematic school environment (Gaytan et al, 2007;Han, 2008;Suarez-Orozco & Carhill;Woolley, 2007), economic hardship (Garibaldi, 1997;Roscigno, 2000;Suarez-Orozco & Carhill;Suarez-Orozco et al, 2010), and reduced parental involvement in the educational process (Barnard, 2004;Hernandez;Gaytan et al;Kuperminc, Darnell, & Alvarez-Jimenez, 2007;Martinez, DeGarmo, & Eddy, 2004;Suarez-Orozco et al, 2010), as well as coming from a single-parent home (Amato & Sobolewski, 2001;Coley, 1998;Lamb, 1999;Suarez-Orozco et al, 2009;Suarez-Orozco et al, 2010).…”