Supporting School Completion Among Latino Youth: The Role of Adult Relationships

By Michael E. Woolley, Ph.D.
The Prevention Researcher,
Volume 16, Number 3, 2009, Pages 9-12, Item# A163-Woolley

Abstract:

The social environment has a significant influence on a youth’s trajectory in terms of school success, especially the powerful influence of the social interactions students experience with adults in their lives. These social interactions are even more important and influential for students from non-dominant race or ethnicity groups, including Latino youth. This article presents a conceptual framework for how adults across all settings can contribute to creating school success trajectories for Latino youth. This framework includes three components:

• understanding the vital role relationships with adults play in the creation of social capital across the settings youth inhabit

• the importance of considering cultural family values in efforts to provide social capital for Latino youth

• three key types of social capital that research has shown to most effectively impact school outcomes: educational expectations, social support, and academic press.

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This article can be found in the issue:

Preventing School Dropout: How All Adults Can Support School Completion

The Prevention Researcher,
Volume 16, Number 3, 2009

Preventing school dropout and facilitating successful school completion is the responsibility of all adults who pay a role in youths’ lives. This issue of The Prevention Researcher looks at how adults within the varied environments that youth inhabit (after-school programs, places of worship, neighborhoods, schools) can support youth to successfully complete high school.

This issue also featured these articles:

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