Leslie Gutierrez

PREDICTING COLLEGE ENROLLMENT FOR LATINAS

Mentor: Jutta Heckhausen

16 May 2009

IntroductionResearch QuestionObjectiveSignificance

Literature ReviewBackground Info

MethodsQuantitative Design

ResultsGrades and Educational

ExpectationsDiscussionConclusionsAcknowledgments

OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION

• What factors facilitate or inhibit college enrollment for Latinas? What assists them in achieving academic success?• Compared to Males?• Compared to other ethnic groups?

OBJECTIVES

• To identify facilitatory and inhibitory factors for academic success by examining…

• Individual Resources• Parental/Family Resources• Sociocultural Resources

• To offer insights into the protective factors for Latinas in academic success and lead to combative strategies for the identified barriers

BACKGROUNDLatino students report lower levels

educational aspirations compared to Asian, African American, and Caucasian

students

Latinos report lower rates of college attendance and completion than other ethnic groups

Ethnic minority first-generation college students typically have poorer academic performance and higher dropout rates than other students

BACKGROUND

The lack of contextual resources such as peer support predicts poorer grades and adjustment

Persistent levels of parental support of education were accompanied by elevations in GPA performance

For Latinos academic achievement is linked both to individual- and family-level influences.However, Asian Americans have higher than average

educational goals than Hispanic Americans

BACKGROUND

Latino students with greater psychological and family resources display greater academic achievement

Women outperform males in academia attainment and success across all ethnicities

Amongst Latinas, this gender gap is smaller but still significant

METHODS

METHODSWith over 1,082 subjects, the coded data from

a longitudinal study spanned over 5 years on students from the Los Angeles Unified School District

We examined waves 1 & 2:Senior high school studentsOne year after high school

The data sets included survey responses from five ethnic groups: European, East Asian, Latin, Africa American, and Other.

METHODSThrough multinomial regressions and

ANOVAs, analyses, we predicated college enrollment by investigating independent variables such as…

Motivational/Personal factorsEx. Educational ExpectationsParental ResourcesEx. Parental EducationSociocultural CharactersEx. Gender roles and expectations

Gender and Ethnicity acted as a moderators

RESULTS

RESULTS

Grades and Educational Expectations were independently significant across gender and ethnic groups Grades were significant when controlledEducational expectations are influenced by

parental warmth, parental education, and parental expectationsNot only by grades, it became more significant

after controlling for gradesLargest predicator for Latinos and Caucasians

RESULTS

Facilitatory ResourcesParental Factors

Parental expectations predicts individual educational expectations and is significant for all ethnic groups

Parental education highly predicts gradesFor Latinos, parental warmth and parental

education were not as strong of predictors as for Caucasians

Personal ResourcesMotivational variables were found not to be

significant Ex. Goal engagements/disengagmenets

RESULTS

Inhibitory ResourcesParental Factors

For Latinos, having low parental warmth does not effect college enrollment

In fact, those with low parental warmth do slightly better

The reverse is said for Caucasians, parental warmth correlates with low college enrollment

For the Caucasians with low Parental education and parental warmth , the probability of failing in their educational attainment and goal achievement increases.

Parental Education levels have no effect for Latinos

DISCUSSION

DISCUSSIONGrades and educational expectations stood

as the strongest predicators for college enrollment in all ethnic groups, especially for Latinos.

Uneven distribution for college enrollment is explained

Little to no significance was concluded on the main effects model from the other investigated variables

E.g. No significance found on motivational variables Contrary to expectations:

No sociocultural factors were found to be highly significant for college enrollment

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSIONSThe most significant protective factors for

college enrollment across gender and all ethnic groups are:Grades and Educational Expectations

Emphasizing the importance of grades and having the expectation of academic success becomes an important parenting strategy

For college enrollment, Latino students need educational expectations most of all to succeed in academia

AcknowledgmentsDr. Jutta Heckhausen – Faculty MentorDr. Kris Day – Social Ecology ProfessorJared Lessard – Graduate Student AdvisorMotivational Lab Partners –

Cory Clark, Bernadette Torres, & Alexandria Delgado

UROP Social Ecology Honors Program

Especially my fellow classmates

QUESTIONS????

Thank You!