Academic resiliency and the post-secondary choices of Mexican American and non-Hispanic white students
Date
2008
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Abstract
This study examined the factors that contribute to the college attendance of dropouts, at-risk students, and control students. Research on dropouts and at risk in-school students typically tends to focus on the factors that inhibit their academic success. Concentrating on risk factors overshadows what might be gained by studying students who are academically successful despite the obstacles and risk factors (Arellano & Padilla, 1996). The academic resiliency literature has shown that a student's academic success depends in part on the "goodness of fit" between contextual events (the family and school environments) and their adaptive resources such as personal attitudes and external support systems (Alva & Padilla, 1995). The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the environmental and personal resources which foster the academic success of Mexican American and Non-Hispanic White high school students and dropouts also foster their decision to attend a postsecondary school. The variables of interest included are parental social support, parental involvement in school activities, peer social support, peer school engagement, and student school engagement. Results were analyzed using logistic regression. Using logistic regression the log-odds of attending a post-secondary school were regressed on peer social support, peer school engagement, parental support, parental involvement, and student school engagement. In this way, the odds of attending post-secondary school as a function of the predictors of interest and relevant control variables were assessed. The results were discussed from an intervention framework.
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Subject
academic resiliency
academic success
dropouts
Mexican-American
non-Hispanic
postsecondary
protective factors
resiliency
white students
educational psychology