As researchers and school stakeholders determine ways to best support Black and Latino adolescent boys from low-income communities in actualizing their postsecondary future ambitions, more attention is needed on the types of futures these boys imagine and how family members influence this process. Guided by future orientations and possible selves frameworks, this school-based ethnographic study investigated the ways families influenced what the author calls the “postsecondary future selves” of Black and Latino (i.e., U.S.-born Salvadoran) 11th-grade boys (N = 5). Described as what youth conceptualize as possible, likely, and expected for their lives after high school, postsecondary future selves considers three future domains: “college” (postsecondary education), “career” (postcollege employment trajectory), and “condition” (expected financial stability, relational and familial prospects, future living arrangements, happiness, and joy). Findings indicate that families built their boys’ capacities for envisioning and making strides toward ideal futures. Finding “success,” “being somebody,” and “having a future” underscored familial messages that emphasized the salience of college going in obtaining a career and life condition that would lead their boys to finding pride and fulfillment. Implications support stakeholders in building adolescents’ efficacy for threading linkages between college going and college majors, career trajectories, and expected life conditions, thus complementing familial-based supports.

随着研究人员和学校利益相关者确定如何最好地支持来自低收入社区的黑人和拉丁裔青少年男孩实现他们的高等教育未来抱负，需要更多地关注这些男孩想象的未来类型以及家庭成员如何影响这一过程。在未来取向和可能的自我框架的指导下，这项以学校为基础的民族志研究调查了家庭对黑人和拉丁裔（即美国出生的萨尔瓦多）11 年级男孩（N= 5）。高中毕业后的未来自我被描述为青年对高中毕业后生活尽可能、可能和预期的概念，考虑三个未来领域：“大学”（高等教育）、“职业”（大学后就业轨迹）和“条件”（预期）财务稳定性、人际关系和家庭前景、未来的生活安排、幸福和快乐）。调查结果表明，家庭培养了他们的男孩设想和迈向理想未来的能力。寻找“成功”、“成为某个人”和“拥有未来”强调了家庭信息，这些信息强调了大学在获得职业和生活条件方面的重要性，这将引导他们的男孩找到自豪感和满足感。