EXAMINING THE INTERACTION OF PARENT-YOUTH CONFLICT AND NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT ON LATINO ADOLESCENTS' EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS
Open Access
- Author:
- O'Brien, Margaret Alyce
- Area of Honors:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dawn Paula Witherspoon, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Richard Alan Carlson, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- neighborhood disadvantage
neighborhood resources
parent-youth conflict
academic expectations
academic aspirations
academic outcomes - Abstract:
- In the United States in the last five years, Latino adolescents have academically performed at a rate lower than that of other ethnic minorities on indicators such as GPA and standardized test performance (U.S. Department of Education, 2017). This study focused on the relationship between parent-youth conflict and neighborhood characteristics on educational aspirations and expectations of Latino youth to understand how these factors impact the academic outcomes. This study used data from FAN-C (Understanding Family, Adolescent, and Neighborhood in Context) and PLACES/LUGARES (FAN-C N = 80; PLACES/LUGARES N = 56) to examine (1) the relationship between parent-youth conflict, as reported by adolescents, with adolescents’ educational attainment aspirations and expectations; (2) the relationship between structural neighborhood disadvantage and youth’s aspirations for and expectations of academic attainment; (3) the relationship between neighborhood academic resources, as reported by parents, and youth’s self-reported educational attainment aspirations and expectations; and (4) whether neighborhood disadvantage and presence of neighborhood academic resources moderate the association between parent-youth conflict and youth’s educational aspirations and expectations. Using hierarchical linear regression, results indicated that although the overall model was not statistically significant, the individual relationship between parent-youth conflict and academic aspirations by neighborhood disadvantage was meaningful and may indicate that parent-youth conflict and academic aspirations vary by neighborhood disadvantage (B = -.507, p = .046). This may suggest that the association between parent-youth conflict and academic outcomes may differ based on neighborhood context.