Mi Conexión Cultural al Ambiente Educativo: Cultural Congruity as a Mediator within a Psychosociocultural Examination of Californian Latinx High School Students’ Coping

Abstract

As California is one of the primary states with the highest influx of Latinxs, the rise of Latinx enrollment in California high schools calls to the importance of understanding methods to increase academic and overall wellness. Cultural congruity (i.e., match of one’s cultural values with those of the educational setting) is hypothesized to influence positive academic and psychological outcomes for Latinx students. However, no study to date has examined the role cultural congruity in further explaining psychological outcomes for high schoolers. Using the psychosociocultural framework, the study’s purpose was to examine if cultural congruity further explains the relationships between academic self-efficacy, family support, and ethnic identity with coping, respectively. For a sample of 104 Latinx Californian high school students, results revealed that cultural congruity partially explained the relationships of academic self-efficacy and ethnic identity with coping, respectively. Educators and mental health practitioners may benefit from implementing a curriculum that is culturally validating, as it may support positive psychological functioning and coping strategies.