Family support and awareness benefit Latino college students, study finds

Successfully transitioning to college is the first step toward graduation. Higher graduation rates among Latino students inget up but still backlog for other ethnic groups.

A new study from Arizona State University’s Department of Psychology found the importance of family relationships for Latinos as they adjust to college. Family dynamics—especially parents’ communication and awareness of their child’s daily life—had both immediate and long-term protective effects on student well-being. The study was published in Developmental psychology.

“Family really does matter. We examined how family dynamics during the senior year of high school and during the first year of college affected Latino students’ transition to college. We found that family connections have long-lasting and positive benefits for college adjustment of life,” said Jerry Sasser, a graduate student in psychology at ASU and first author of the paper.

The research team followed 207 Latinos during their senior year of high school and freshman year of college. Study participants completed questionnaires about family communication, parental support, and knowledge of their daily lives and personal well-being in high school and during their first and second semesters of college. Questions about family communication assessed the quality of communication between students and family members such as parents, grandparents, siblings, or aunts and uncles. Measures of student well-being included alcohol use and levels symptoms of depression.

Positive family communication in the senior year of high school predicted fewer depressive symptoms in the first semester of college. The benefits of family communication persisted beyond the first semester due to parents’ awareness of their child’s daily life.

Students’ perceptions of how aware their parents were of what was going on in their lives was associated with less alcohol use during the first and second semesters of college.

“Depressive symptoms and alcohol use tend to increase when people enter college, and this can be difficult to change. This study shows that building family relationships before the transition to college can help reduce levels of depressive symptoms and alcohol use,” said Jack Waddell, a graduate student in psychology at ASU and co-author of the paper.

Research has also shown that the student experience in college affects family dynamics. For example, students who reported increased depressive symptoms during the first semester of college also reported decreased parental support during the second semester.

“Hispanic youth continue to be one of the largest ethnic minority groups represented in institutions of higher education, yet have the lowest graduation rates,” said Leah Doan, professor of psychology and senior author of the paper. “We’re doing a good job promoting college pathways for Latino youth, and we need to better understand what happens when they go to school college from an individual, family and institutional perspective to enhance their abilities to succeed and achieve academically.’