The Role of Ethnic Context on Latinos' Ethnic Identity and School Belonging

• In Event: 2-019 - The Salience of Racial-Ethnic Climate in School for Minority Youth: Contributions to Adolescent Psychosocial Outcomes

Integrative Statement

For Latinos who are typically more collectivistic than other ethnic groups, a strong sense of school belonging fosters better school adjustment and achievement (Espinoza & Juvonen, 2011; Rivas-Drake, 2011). Thus, as the U.S. Latino population continues to grow (U. S. Census Bureau, 2016), identifying ways to protect their sense of school belonging is critical. One relevant factor that buffers school belonging is ethnic identity (Oyserman, 2008). Few studies, however, have examined what school contextual factors help explain and strengthen this association. As a result, we investigate whether perceived number of same ethnic peers in school moderates this link while additionally examining the mediating role of school ethnic climate. With middle schools serving as important ethnic socializers, the present study adds to the literature by elucidating how the ethnic context informs the association between Latinos’ ethnic identity (EI) and school belonging.

Participants self-identified as Latino (N=1105; 52% female) and were a subsample of the Middle School Diversity Project (accounting for 18.4% of the larger sample), which included 26 urban middle schools in California. School belonging was measured using 4-items (e.g., “I feel like I belong in this school”) rated on a 5-point scale (“no way!” to “for sure yes!”). EI captured the subjective membership and quality of ethnic group identification using 12-items (e.g., “I am proud that I am a member of my ethnic group”) rated from “definitely no!” to “definitely yes!”. Perceived number of same ethnic peers used 1-item that asked “how many students at this school are from your ethnic group?” and was rated on a 7-point scale [1 = “none or hardly any (less than 10%) to 7 = “all or almost all (90-100%)”]. Furthermore, school ethnic climate assessed the degree that schools fostered positive interethnic relations (e.g., “students are able to make friends with kids from different ethnic groups”) rated on a 7-point scale (“no way!” to “for sure, yes!”). Composite mean scores were computed for each measure. Participants’ sex and parent level of education served as control variables. Moderated mediation was tested using PROCESS v2 macro for SPSS (Hayes, 2017).

As predicted, results in Figure 1 indicated that perceiving a positive ethnic climate mediated the relationship between EI and school belonging (b = .44, 95% CI: .35, .51). Perceiving more same ethnic peers moderated this association and resulted in only the interaction being significant (b = 07, 95% CI: .01, .13). While prior research has shown the protective function of more same ethnic peers for EI (Kiang & Fuligni, 2009) and separately for school belonging (e.g., Morales-Chicas & Graham, 2017), our results indicate that perceiving more same ethnic peers also buffered the association between EI and school belonging. This moderation occurred above and beyond school ethnic climate serving as a mediator between EI and school belonging. Specifically, a stronger EI was linked to perceiving more positive ethnic climate, which was then associated with higher school belonging. Altogether, these moderated mediation results draw importance to why schools should prioritize promoting a positive school climate for minority youth.

Authors

• Jessica Morales-Chicas, California State University, Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Manpreet Dhillon Brar, UCLA
  Non-Presenting Author