The Influence of Cultural Identity and Perceived Barriers on College-Going Beliefs and Aspirations of Latino Youth in Emerging Immigrant Communities

Abstract

Emerging immigrant communities differ from established communities in terms of needs and available resources. Students in these emerging communities may still be acculturating to new contexts and establishing their ethnic identities, which may impact their ability to engage in planning for the future. The current study examines what impact these cultural identity variables, in addition to perceptions of barriers to college entrance, would have on educational aspirations and college-going self-efficacy beliefs of Latino adolescents. Findings from 171 middle-and high school Latino students from immigrant families indicated that public ethnic regard and resilience to barriers were positively associated with college-going self-efficacy, and Anglo orientation had a trend-level effect, while perceived barriers were negatively related to that outcome. Private ethnic regard and person-based barriers were negatively associated with educational aspirations. Generation status, gender, mother's education, and age were control variables. Implications for 104 Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 35(1) research and practice are provided, focusing on perceived barriers and selfefficacy beliefs.

“Yes, I Can”: Testing an Intervention to Increase Middle School Students’ College and Career Self‐Efficacy

“…Students’ college‐going self‐efficacy was measured using the paper version of the College‐Going Self‐Efficacy Scale (Gibbons & Borders, ). This normed and validated scale is a widely accepted instrument for measuring the college‐going beliefs of students in the middle grades (Gonzalez, Stein, & Huq, ; Steiner, ). The survey contains 30 questions with two subscales.…”

Factors Influencing Academic Motivation of Ethnic Minority Students: A Review

“…Five factors had a positive influence on the motivation of ethnic minority students: age (O'Hara et al, 2012;Perreira, Fuligni, & Potochnick, 2010;Sentell, 2012;Van Houtte & Stevens, 2010), being a female (sex; Kfir, 1988;O'Hara et al, 2012;Perreira et al, 2010;Plunkett and Bámaca-Gómez, 2003;Sentell, 2012;Van Houtte & Stevens, 2010), being foreign-born (Perreira et al, 2010), (general) intellectual ability/ intelligence (Hudley, 1997;Marjoribanks, 1985), and police arrest (Stewart et al, 2007). Six factors were found to be barriers in this subcategory: age (Gonzalez et al, 2013), length of residency in United States (St-Hilaire, 2002), limited knowledge of English (Behnke, Piercy, & Diversi, 2004), drug use (Kenny et al, 2007), person-based barriers (e.g., not feeling smart enough and having a good job already; Gonzalez et al, 2013), and being a male (Hill & Wang, 2015).…”

“…(Rovai, 2009, p. 29) Three barriers were found in this subcategory: Mexicanoriented acculturation, private regard (Gonzalez et al, 2013), and race-based rejection sensitivity (Mendoza-Denton, Pietrzak, & Downey, 2008).…”

Measuring Acculturation With the ARSMA-II

“…Searches included different combinations of the following keyword terms: Mexican American, Mexican-American, Hispanic, acculturation, Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican-Americans-II, Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II, and ARSMA-II. Gonzales, & Dumka (2013) 2013 Bidimensional Chun, Devall, & Sandau-Beckler (2013) 2013 Bidimensional Derlan et al (2013) 2013 Bidimensional Garriott & Flores (2013) 2013 Bidimensional Gerdes, Lawton, Haack, & Hurtado (2013) 2013 Bidimensional Gonzalez, Stein, & Huq (2013) 2013 Articles were included in this review if the majority of the sample consisted of Mexican Americans, the whole version (rather than the brief version or an altered form) of the ARSMA-II was used, and either an overall acculturation score and/or separate MOS and AOS scores were given.…”