Academic Resilience in Mexican American High School Students from Single Mother Households

• In Event: 082 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 09. Latino Education

Abstract

There are currently 24,725,000 single parent households in the United States. Hispanics make up 28% of that amount with 7,008,000 households (National KIDS Count, 2014). Single parent households have been growing in the previous years. However, there is one major issue with single parent families. We found that coming from a single parent household can create academic barriers for teenagers in high school, especially for students of color. Therefore, it is important to examine students who overcame those barriers and are academically resilient students.

This study looks at how students coming from single parent households are negatively affected in their academic success and broadening perspectives of single mothers raising their children independently. We interviewed 10 high school students between the ages of 16 and 18. These students came from two high schools from working-class Mexican neighborhoods in the city of Chicago. These students excelled with a 3.0 GPA or higher and were involved in extracurricular activities. They were Hispanic students who grew up in a single mother household. The research focused on factors contributing to their academic resilience despite the challenges, factors such as gender, race, sense of belonging, and coming from a single-parent household. Overall, we found that students resilience in school was affected by their gender, race, and sense of belonging. However, coming from a single parent household was a main motivator in their resilience.

Authors

• Daisy Tlatenchi, University of Illinois-Chicago

• Oscar Ramses Parada Campos, University of Illinois-Chicago

• Jennifer Juarez, University of Illinois-Chicago