Poster #107 - Academic Achievement and Social Support in Latinx College Students

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Latinx individuals continue to have lower levels of educational attainment compared to other racial groups: only 17% of Latinx adults compared to 37% of non-Latinx white adults have Bachelor’s degree or higher, and 5% of Latinx adults have a graduate or advanced professional degree, compared to 14% of non-Latinx whites (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health). It is thus important to identify factors that contribute to the academic success of Latinx college students.
One potential factor that could promote success in the Latinx college population is social support from family. Studies with K-12 students suggest that family support predicts better performance on annual examinations in middle school (Chohan & Khan, 2010) and higher high school completion rates (Lefevre & Shaw, 2012). Yet findings regarding the relationship between family support and college achievement are more mixed. While some studies suggest that family relationships promote greater academic motivation and self-efficacy in Latinx students (Alfaro et al., 2018; Jones et al., 2022), others have failed to find a relationship between family support and GPA (Denis et al., 2005). However, this later study did not distinguish between Latinx students and those from other racial/ethnic minority groups. It is possible that Latinx students might benefit more from family support than students from other groups because they embrace cultural values that emphasize connectedness with family members (familismo).
The present study thus examined the relationship between social support and academic achievement in college students. We predicted that family support would be more strongly related to academic self-efficacy and GPA for Latinx students than for non-Latinx students. Moreover, we predicted that the relationship between parent support and academic outcomes should be stronger for Latinx students who endorse traditional cultural values such as familismo.
225 undergraduate students (146 Latinx; 71 non-Latinx) participated for course credit. Support was measured using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS; Zaimet et al., 1988), which has separate subscales for support from family, friends, and significant others. Cultural values were assessed using the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (Knight et al., 2010). Outcomes measures were current college GPA and academic self-efficacy, which was measured with the Self-Efficacy Scale (SES; Solberg 1993).
Results revealed no relationships between social support and GPA for either Latinx or non-Latinx students. However, all three subscales of the MSPSS predicted academic self-efficacy, all ps < .010. Regardless of ethnicity, students who received higher levels of support reported higher academic self-efficacy. Results also revealed an interaction between social support from family, participant ethnicity, and endorsement of familismo: Latinx students who endorsed familismo more strongly had higher self-efficacy if they also reported higher levels of social support from family. This pattern did not emerge for non-Latinx students, or for other sources of social support.
These results demonstrate that support from family promotes academic self-efficacy in Latinx college students, and it has a greater impact on those who endorse familismo. Implications of these findings for supporting educational attainment in Latinx students will be discussed.

Authors

• Jazmin Sandoval, University of California, Merced
  Presenting Author

• Rose M Scott, University of California - Merced