Perceptions of Chicano/Latino Students Who Have Dropped Out of School

The Systemic Conditions Leading to Violent Human Behavior

There has been increased interest in violence because of several recent tragic murders committed by adolescent boys. Most researchers speculate that there are multiple risk factors associated with people who become violent and kill other people. This article presents a model for understanding how the risk factors may interact to favor the development of violent human behavior. The model proposes a set of conditions for the four levels of human behavior—intrapsychic, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup—that are necessary, but not sufficient in and of themselves, to determine the expression of violent behavior. Certain final events that complement the favorable factors and trigger or precipitate violence are proposed. Recommendations for systemic interventions at all four levels are also provided.

Culture, Prevention, and the Politics of Disparities

The following article is a response to Adams's (2007 [this issue]) and Griffin and Miller's (2007 [this issue]) reactions to the Major Contribution articles presented on Culturally Relevant Prevention. Each reaction article identifies important implications for engaging in culturally relevant prevention efforts that are relevant to developing this line of research in the future and integrating such work into our training programs. In particular, the importance of defining culture carefully and the politics of disparities are further discussed in this response article. In addition, the importance of learning from other disciplines how to integrate prevention practice and research into counseling psychology training is discussed.

Acculturative Stress and School Belonging Among Latino Youth

Dimensions of acculturative stress and their implications for school belonging and achievement were examined among 199 Latino middle-school students. The proposed model hypothesized that school belonging would mediate the association between acculturative stress dimensions and low school achievement. Eighty percent youth of the sample were immigrants, 73% had Mexican origins, 57% were girls, and the mean age of the participants was 13.6 years. A factor analysis yielded two dimensions of acculturative stress: discrimination stress and immigration-related stress. Immigration-related stress was associated with age of immigration, but discrimination stress was not. Findings supported the hypothesis that lack of school belonging may be a mechanism by which discrimination stress, but not immigration-related stress, decreases school performance among Latino youth.

Supportive Schooling

Given the challenges of a culturally and linguistically diverse student body, one exemplary high school has developed supportive schooling practices that provide academic rigor and access for all students while embracing their linguistic and cultural identities. This ethnographic study documents how this school contributed to the college preparation of nine Latino immigrant students. Implications also address the need for partnerships with university and community resources that assist students and families in the college preparation process.

Supportive adult relationships and the academic engagement of Latin American immigrant youth

The central aim of this study was to explore the academic engagement trajectories of a sample of recently arrived immigrant students from Latin America. Using an analytic framework that can dynamically model time-sensitive fluctuations (HLM; [Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchicical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods (2nd Edition ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications]), we explored how initial engagement, gender, and support from caring adults at school shaped youths' engagement over time. Students reported a range of engagement trajectories, with gender and support emerging as important predictors of youths' engagement trajectories. Additionally, perceptions of support fluctuated from year to year, and these fluctuations were linked to youths' academic engagement. The findings point to associations between support perceptions and engagement, including links between students' current academic motivation and effort and their current connections with adults. Taken together, the findings present a nuanced portrait of academic engagement and suggest how relationships at school might facilitate positive academic adjustment among Latin American immigrant students over time. Implications for future research, public policy, and practice are discussed.

Competence under challenge: exploring the protective influence of parental support and ethnic identity in Latino college students

This longitudinal study examined the protective influence of psychological and family factors on academic achievement in 123 Latino college (101 Mexican American, 14 Central American, 8 mixed Mexican/Central American) students. Three cultural resources--ethnic identity, family interdependence, and parental support--were hypothesized as protective factors that modify the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage in a positive direction. The pattern of findings suggests that Latino students with greater psychological and family resources evidence greater academic achievement. After covarying between-person differences in gender and generational status, both ethnic identity and parental support moderated the effects of low socioeconomic status on academic achievement.