Latinx adolescents’ academic self-efficacy: Explaining longitudinal links between ethnic–racial identity and educational adjustment.

Abstract

Objective: This longitudinal study had three aims: (a) to examine whether ethnic-racial identity (ERI; i.e., public regard, private regard, and centrality) was associated with academic self-efficacy and changes in educational adjustment (i.e., educational values and academic performance) among Latinx adolescents over 3 years, (b) to investigate whether academic self-efficacy would operate as a promotive mechanism in links between domains of ERI and changes in educational adjustment, and (c) to explore within-group variability by gender on the relations between domains of ERI, academic self-efficacy, and educational adjustment. Method: Data came from 329 Latinx families (i.e., middle school students and their parents) living in the Southwest U.S. Parents' data were used from the first wave and adolescents' (M = 13.69, SD = .56; 53% girls) data were used from three study waves. A series of structural equation models were estimated. Results: All three domains of ERI related to higher levels of academic self-efficacy. Further, public regard was associated with increased levels of educational values, whereas private regard and centrality did not associate with either indicator of educational adjustment. Results provided support for academic selfefficacy serving as a mediator of associations between private regard and centrality and educational adjustment. The results were consistent across gender. Conclusions: The findings suggest that fostering ERI is promotive of Latinx adolescents' academic self-efficacy. Further, through academic self-efficacy, private regard and centrality support educational adjustment. ERI and academic self-efficacy may be potential targets for programming aimed to address educational disparities among Latinx adolescents.

Self-efficacy moderates the association between adverse childhood experiences and generalized anxiety symptoms among Latine college students.

“…These findings add to the growing literature on optimizing wellness among Latine college students in the context of unique stressors experienced (Chang et al, 2019; Enriquez et al, 2023; Mayorga et al, 2018). Self-efficacy has often been explored in the context of educational and academic outcomes (Manzano-Sanchez et al, 2018; Thomas et al, 2022), but there has been limited work, to date, examining relationships between self-efficacy and anxiety outcomes. The present findings highlight the very important role that overall self-efficacy (i.e., GSE) and affect-specific self-efficacy (i.e., ESE) may play in mitigating the effects of negative early experiences on the development of anxiety across Latine emerging adulthood.…”

“…ESE functions correlate and interact with GSE (Milioni et al, 2015) and are also independent of GSE (Eisenberg & Spinrad, 2004). To date, however, much of the research on self-efficacy in students has been conducted in the context of success and educational adjustment and academic self-efficacy (Aguayo et al, 2011; Takimoto et al, 2021; Thomas et al, 2022) and not on ESE and GSE. When predicting anxiety in college students, focusing on ESE, as well as GSE, may be most relevant.…”

The Roles of Cultural Mistrust and Mentoring in Latinx Adolescents’ Attitudes Toward School

“…Of the 463 total participants, 406 completed the survey in ninth grade and 352 completed the survey in both 9th and 10th grade (86.7% retention). This retention rate is somewhat higher than other longitudinal studies of Latinx adolescents' academic outcomes (e.g., Thomas et al, 2022;Umaña-Taylor et al, 2008). Attrition analyses were conducted using independent samples' t-tests and chi-square analyses to compare participants who completed surveys in both 9th and 10th grade to students who only completed the survey in ninth grade.…”

Propiedades psicométricas e invariancia de medida de una escala de autoeficacia académica en estudiantes universitarios de cinco países latinoamericanos

“…As has already been mentioned, most psychological constructs are dependent upon sociocultural aspects, like the ASE (Thomas et al, 2022), indicating the need to verify the measurement equivalence of the construct in relation to the country being evaluated. This is relevant because in the scales relying upon verbal language (be it oral or written), words can have different meanings, depending on the manner and context wherein they are used (Fernández et al, 2010).…”