How Do My Friends Matter? Examining Latino Adolescents’ Friendships, School Belonging, and Academic Achievement

Abstract

Are Latino adolescents' friendships an untapped resource for academic achievement or perhaps one of the reasons why these youth struggle academically? Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 6782; 7th through 12th graders; 52.9 % female), we examined whether the process of Latino students' school belonging mediated the relationships between the context of friendships (i.e., friendship network indicators) and their academic outcomes (i.e., a context-process-outcomes model), and tested whether the process-context link varied by friends' characteristics (i.e., GPA and problem behavior; social capital). Moreover, we tested whether all relationships varied across the four largest Latino subgroups in the U.S. (i.e., Mexican, Central/South American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban). Our findings indicate that being nominated as a friend by peers and perceiving to have friends exerted both direct effects on school belonging in all but one of the Latino ethnic samples (i.e., Puerto Rican samples) and indirect effects on academic achievement in the full Latino, Mexican, and Central/South American samples. As such, school belonging was more likely to explain the links between academic achievement with nominations by peers as a friend and perceived friends than with having close-knit friendship groups. However, having a close-knit group of average or low-achieving friends predicted more school belonging for Mexican youth, but less school belonging for Cubans. Our findings suggest that friendships may be particularly beneficial for the school belonging process of highly marginalized groups in the U.S. (i.e., Mexican-origin).

Wellbeing and Society: Towards Quantification of the Co-benefits of Wellbeing

“…Their findings show that low levels of social relationships have long-term negative effects on school performance and explain around 25% of school performance. Along the same line, Delgado et al (2016) carry out an analysis focusing on Latin American adolescents living in the US. Using a Structural Equation Model, they find that having close friends increases the sense of school belonging, this having in turn a positive effect on school attainment.…”

Mexican-origin adolescents' educational expectation trajectories: Intersection of nativity, sex, and socioeconomic status

“…Youths' educational expectation trajectories did not differ for African American, Native American, European American, or Hispanic youths. However, these studies focus on Hispanic youth as a monolithic group, ignoring the unique histories, social expectations, and educational experiences of Hispanic youth from different countries of origin (Delgado, Ettekal, Simpkins, & Schaefer, 2016; Portes & Rumbaut, 2006). Only one study has focused on Mexican-origin youth (Bravo, Toomey, Umaña-Taylor, Updegraff, & Jahromi, 2015); however, this study used data from adolescent mothers beginning in the third trimester of pregnancy and extended for three years.…”

Latinos’ Changing Ethnic Group Representation From Elementary to Middle School: Perceived Belonging and Academic Achievement

“…For example, a recent study analyzing U.S. Census statistics from 1960 to 2010 reported that Cuban Americans consistently outperformed Mexican and Puerto Rican students on the percentage of high school graduates (Ortiz, Valerio, & Lopez, ). Recent literature relevant to school belonging suggests that friendships are especially protective for the school belonging of Mexican‐origin adolescents compared with South or Central American youth (Delgado, Ettekal, Simpkins, & Schaefer, ). These researchers speculated that this difference may have occurred as a result of Mexican students being the numerically largest group and therefore more scrutinized, marginalized, and targeted for discrimination.…”