Latino Family Socialization and the Development of the College-Going Success Frame

• In Event: Latina/o Sociology Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

Previous research on Latino families and youths documents the “success frames” of immigrant-origin Latino young adults, identifying college education and intergenerational mobility as central to these frames (Diaz and Lee, 2020; Lee and Zhou, 2015; Reyes, 2025; Schmalzbauer, 2023). However, less is known about the developmental process of success frames among immigrant-origin Latino young adults, many of whom come from low SES families and do not hold the cultural toolkits of the American middle class or the institutionalized ethnic resources of other, more hyperselected immigrant groups. Drawing on 85 life history interviews with college-going immigrant-origin Latino young adults in Southern California, I examine how their families develop college-going success frames through their experiences with social inequality in education and work in both their home countries and the United States. Findings show that working-class family members shared their experiences of limited educational attainment and work in service, construction, and agricultural sectors to cultivate success frames that portray early entry into working-class jobs as unsuitable for long-term social mobility. Others with higher levels of graduate education used their limited mobility as evidence for the need for even more educational attainment. As a result, Latino families and youths constructed a college-going frame to situate college as the ideal pathway to adulthood, positioning alternatives to college, such as full-time work or the military, as incompatible with their goals of social mobility. This study highlights the dynamic nature of the cultural toolkits of immigrant-origin families. It demonstrates how families' success frames develop in response to their experiences with the educational and occupational opportunity structures they encounter in their home countries and in the United States, suggesting a cultural mechanism by which social inequalities produce high college enrollments among members of immigrant-origin disadvantaged groups.

Author

• Jose Jesus Gutierrez, University of California-Irvine