A Prospective Study of Mexican American Adolescents’ Academic Success: Considering Family and Individual Factors

Abstract

Mexican American youth are at greater risk of school failure than their peers. To identify factors that may contribute to academic success in this population, this study examined the prospective relationships from 5th grade to 7th grade of family (i.e., human capital [a parent with at least a high school education], residential stability, academically and occupationally positive family role models, and family structure) and individual characteristics (i.e., externalizing symptoms, bilingualism, gender, and immigrant status) to the academic performance of 749 Mexican American early adolescents (average age = 10.4 years and 48.7% were girls in 5th grade) from economically and culturally diverse families as these youth made the transition to junior high school. Results indicated that while controlling for prior academic performance, human capital and positive family role models assessed when adolescents were in in 5th grade positively related to academic performance in 7th grade. Further, being a girl also was related to greater 7th grade academic success, whereas externalizing symptoms were negatively related to 7th grade academic performance. No other variables in the model were significantly and prospectively related to 7th grade academic performance. Implications for future research and interventions are discussed.

Estimating Latent Variable Interactions With Nonnormal Observed Data: A Comparison of Four Approaches

“…The example uses data from Proyeto: La Familia (The Family Project, Roosa, Liu, Torres, Gonzales, Knight, & Saenz, 2008), a longitudinal study of Mexican American families. We tested whether there is a possible interaction of child’s reported academic self-efficacy and positive family role models on the child’s academic performance (e.g., Roosa, O’Donnell, Cham, Gonzales, Zeiders, Tein, Knight, & Umaña-Taylor, 2012). Our analyses are based on 669 families with complete data.…”

Home Environment and Self‐Efficacy Beliefs among Native American, African American, and Latino Adolescents

“…Schwartz et al (2005) discussed the process that adolescents must go through to arrive at full adult independence. Previous studies with Native American and Latino youth showed that adolescents spend more time engaged in productive behavior and less time engaged in maladaptive behavior when parents were good role models and when parent and adolescent engaged in ongoing communication (Roosa et al, 2012;Sarche & Spicer, 2008), with one study pointing to self-efficacy as a mediator (Pu et al, 2013). For some groups of minority adolescents, developing a positive identity and a strong sense of agency can be quite challenging, because members of some ethnic/racial groups are less likely to have access to key resources, more frequently face discrimination, and are more likely to live in neighborhoods where they are exposed to risks (Burt et al, 2012;Cabrera, 2013).…”

“…Perhaps modeling and guidance functions as a protective factor in communities where life is often pervaded by uncertainty yet there are strong cultural values related to social behavior (e.g., familism in the case of Latinos; child stewardship in the case of Native Americans). Previous studies with Native American and Latino youth showed that adolescents spend more time engaged in productive behavior and less time engaged in maladaptive behavior when parents were good role models and when parent and adolescent engaged in ongoing communication (Roosa et al, 2012;Sarche & Spicer, 2008), with one study pointing to self-efficacy as a mediator (Pu et al, 2013). The reason that modeling did not appear to be as strong a factor for African American adolescents is not fully determinable from the data available.…”

Adaptation and Feasibility of a Communication Intervention for Mexican Immigrant Mothers and Children in a School Setting

“…Stress in the family system impacts child mental health and well-being and is expressed as internalizing and externalizing depressive symptoms. Internalizing symptoms include lack of interest in school, social withdrawal, poor academic achievement, and suicidal ideation while external symptoms include irritability, aggression, and disruptive behaviors (Jaycox et al, 2009; Roosa et al, 2011). Recently, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2012) reported high rates of depressive symptoms for Hispanic youth (40%) as compared to 26% of all youth.…”