The Social Context of School Success for Latino Middle School Students

Abstract

Youth's social relationships at school and at home have been shown to predict a wide variety of school outcomes, such as behavior at school and academic performance. Specifically, relationships with teachers, parents, and peers have all been shown to affect student performance. The current study utilized data collected from 848 Latino middle school students to examine direct and indirect linkages of students' relationships with teachers, parents, and friends with student outcomes. Structural equation models revealed that teacher support was associated with both student behavior and satisfaction with school and was indirectly associated with time spent on homework and grades. Parental support, friend support, friends' school behavior, and parental monitoring of educational issues were directly associated with student reports of teacher support and were indirectly linked to school behavior and satisfaction. Friend behavior at school also showed a significant direct association with student behavior, and parental education monitoring directly predicted student satisfaction with school. Directions for future research and implications for school policy and programming are discussed.