Abstract
Latino college graduation rates continue to fall behind rates of other racial/ethnic groups, highlighting the importance of understanding risk and protective processes across the transition into higher education. The current study examined changes in socio-cultural contexts (i.e., campus and neighborhood co-ethnic composition) and academic achievement across the college transition for Latino adolescents and investigated whether familism values moderated associations. Participants were 188 Latino late-adolescents (Mage = 18.12; SD = 0.40; 62.9% female). Greater campus incongruency (i.e., decrease in co-ethnic composition) was associated with lower achievement for adolescents with low familism values, but not those with average or high levels. Change in neighborhood co-ethnic composition was not associated with achievement. Moving to incongruent campus contexts may be risky for Latino youth who report low levels of familism values, underscoring the importance of sociocultural protective processes in person-context transitions.
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Authors’ Contributions
H.P. conceived of the study, participated in its design, performed statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; J.S. participated in data collection and contributed to draft writing; L.D.D. obtained funding for the broader project, designed and coordinated the study, supervised statistical analysis, contributed to draft writing and edited writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This research was supported by a William T. Grant Foundation Early Scholar Award to L.D.D. and a William T. Grant Foundation Mentoring Junior Scholars of Color Award to H.P. and L.D.D.
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Park, H., Sasser, J. & Doane, L.D. Latino Adolescents’ Academic Trajectories over the Transition to Higher Education: Variation by School and Neighborhood Contexts and Familism. J Youth Adolescence 50, 1824–1838 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01475-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01475-3