Latino College Students Research Articles

Weight-related eating among Latino college students.

Weight-related eating among Latino college students.

Acculturative stress, collectivistic coping, and drinking in a predominantly Latino college sample.

The present study explored the association of acculturative stress with alcohol consumption and problems, and whether these associations varied by collectivistic coping style in a predominantly Latino college sample. Participants were 192 (58.9% female; Mage = 23.4 years, SD = 6.6; 89.6% Hispanic or Latino) undergraduate students from the University of Texas at El Paso that participated in a survey that assessed their acculturative stress, collectivistic coping styles, alcohol use, and associated problems. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine the potential moderating effect of collectivistic coping styles on the relationship between acculturative stress and drinking variables. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed a significant two-way interaction between acculturative stress and seeking social support in predicting monthly drinking frequency, heavy drinking frequency, peak number of drinks, and alcohol problems. They also revealed a significant two-way interaction between acculturative stress and forbearance in predicting heavy drinking frequency and peak number of drinks. The associations between acculturative stress and each of the outcomes were positive at low levels of collectivistic coping style. However, these relationships became increasingly negative as the collectivistic coping style increased. The present study extends the literature on collectivistic coping by exploring the protective effects of collectivistic coping styles against drinking among Latino college students. Based on current findings, it appears that among Latino students, seeking social support may serve as a protective factor against the effects of acculturative stress on alcohol use and problems and that forbearance may serve as a protective factor against the effects of acculturative stress on alcohol use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Social Positioning and Learning Opportunities in One Student’s Textual Transition to College Writing

Developing academic writers must continually position themselves discursively as they negotiate institutional, programmatic, and disciplinary contexts. The inextricable relationship of writing and identities raises questions of access to social identities in schools, a particularly salient issue when considering the complexities and challenges of the high school to college transition for students from historically marginalized groups. This study focuses on Jain, a first-generation Latino college student, as he positions himself as a writer over 18 months in response to a range of school-based writing tasks. My analysis finds that Jain’s identity negotiations are influenced by a history of social positioning in schools, as his stance-making patterns and sense of self as a writer reflect resources and opportunities he encounters. This study adds to research demonstrating the role teachers and institutions can play in (in)validating certain aspects of students’ identities and influencing belonging in school spaces, indicating a need for educators and researchers across K-12 and college contexts to continue to challenge the standardization of school writing and the prevalence of assessments that limit curricula and constrain identities.

Different but Somewhat Similar: Panethnicity, Group Boundaries, and Dating Preferences among Asian and Latino College Students

Few studies of romantic unions focus on interethnic preferences among Asians and Latinos to discern the salience of panethnicity in dating. Using unique mixed-methods data, which disaggregates the ethnic identity of respondents and their preferred partners, we examine patterns of panethnic and non-panethnic dating choices among Asian and Latino college students and their explanations for their preferences. We find that Asian college students, except for Filipinos, desire co-panethnic partners more than Latinos do, although only certain co-panethnics are preferred. Students use narratives about culture, phenotype, family, and familiarity in different ways to justify their preferences. In some cases, these criteria guide them to preferences in line with common understandings of where panethnic boundaries lie. In others, preferences reveal alternative conceptions of group boundaries based on phenotypic and cultural differences with co-panethnics or similarities across panethnic lines. These findings complicate existing understandings of panethnicity and challenge the durability of panethnic boundaries.

An Examination of Peer Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Alcohol Intoxication Among Latino College Students

ABSTRACT Integrating students into their college community is viewed as essential for student retention. However, these efforts may expose students to a drinking subculture, which potentially threatens their academic success. This threat appears even more pronounced for students of color, who must also navigate racial obstacles such as prejudice and discrimination, which further predispose them to greater levels of problem drinking. Drawing off survey data from a Latino sample of college students, I examine the importance of peer socialization messages about ethnicity and race (peer ethnic-racial socialization; peer ERS) and how they influence levels of alcohol intoxication. A confirmatory factor analysis identified three dimensions of peer ERS: cultural socialization, preparation for bias, and promotion of mistrust. Peer messages stressing cultural socialization reduced levels of alcohol intoxication by promoting a strong ethnic identity. In addition, respondents actively involved in fraternities/sororities and student clubs/organizations reported reduced prevalence of alcohol intoxication when exposed to greater levels of all three dimensions of peer ERS. I discuss these findings within the broader ethnic-racial socialization literature as well as how they might be used by administrators to improve retention for students of color.

Cultural Correlates of Dating Violence in a Combined Gender Group of Latino College Students.

Prevalence rates of dating violence (DV) on college campuses are high. The documented effects of DV suggest substantial challenges across all domains of functioning; yet, DV is preventable. The research on risk and preventive factors for Latino college students is limited. This study used the social-ecological model to examine factors associated with DV at the individual, relationship, and societal levels. More specifically, we utilized structural equation modeling to build an acceptable model of physical and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) experiences for Latino participants based on variables of gender role beliefs, acculturation, attitudes toward violence, and surveillance behavior, while considering development issues. We describe the practice and prevention implications of the study findings. Overall, the model showed excellent model fit (χ2[40] = 52.06, p < .09, root mean square error of approximation = 0.025, comparative fit index = 0.99, Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.98, and a coefficient of determination of 0.04), and several proposed pathways were found to be significant, exhibiting the utility of this model in understanding Latino Dating violence. Maternal education was found to be significantly negatively associated with Mexican orientation (β = -.13, p = .02) and indirectly associated with both DV attitudes and surveillance through Mexican orientation, suggesting protective effects for lower maternal education and higher Mexican orientation. Machismo (β = .18, p = .002) and caballerismo (β = .26, p < .001) were both related to IPV attitudes. Machismo also directly increased the risk of surveillance (β = .21, p < .001) and indirectly increased the risk of physical and psychological victimization through surveillance behavior. Mexican orientation predicted less endorsement of DV attitudes (β = -.16, p < .001) and less surveillance (β = -.09, p = .04). Victimization was predicted by caballerismo (β = -.19, p < .001) and surveillance (β = .33, p < .001).

Additive, Common, and Cumulative Contributions of Stress on Diurnal Cortisol Activity: Evidence Among Latino College Students

The transition to college is a major socio-contextual shift marked by opportunity and stress. Adolescents who encounter significant stress during this time may experience changes in neuroendocrine function, an identified mechanism underlying associations between stress and psychopathology. Latino students may be particularly at-risk for stress exposure, as ethnic/racial minority youth experience both minority-specific and general life stressors. This study employed a “multi-risk model” to examine additive, common, and cumulative effects of various stressors on Latino college students’ diurnal cortisol. 180 Latino college students (Mage=18.95; 64.4% female) provided five saliva samples a day across three weekdays (M=14.88, SD=.95; 2,667 samples) to assess diurnal cortisol patterns (i.e., cortisol awakening response (CAR), diurnal cortisol slope (DCS)). Participants self-reported on multiple stress forms (general, academic, social, financial, bicultural, discrimination) via online survey and daily diary. Common and cumulative stress were assessed via exploratory factor analysis and cumulative risk index, respectively. Three-level growth curve models were fit using Mplus. In the additive model, general stress was associated with a flatter DCS (γ=.01, p=.03) and bicultural stress was linked with a steeper DCS (γ=-.07, p=.047). In the common model, college stress was related to a lower CAR (γ=-.09, p=.045). Higher cumulative stress was linked with a lower CAR (γ=-.06, p=.007). Findings highlight the physiological correlates of various stressors experienced by Latino college students. Results have implications for equity promoting interventions to reduce stress and subsequent physiological processes underlying the development of psychopathology.

Sleep and Diurnal Cortisol Patterns: Cultural Prediction and Moderation Among Latino College Students

Sleep is a bioregulatory mechanism that promotes healthy physiological stress processes. Little research has examined daily links between sleep and diurnal cortisol patterns in minoritized youth populations, or explored whether such links are predicted by developmentallysalient cultural factors. Using a strengths-based approach to understanding cultural neurobiology, we examined individual (e.g., familism values) and institutional (i.e., changes in co-ethnic concentration) predictors of diurnal cortisol patterns, and whether cultural factors moderated daily links between sleep and cortisol. Methods: Salivary cortisol was collected five times a day in conjunction with actigraphy sleep across three weekdays in a sample of 180 Latino first-year college students (Mage=18.95; 64.4% female). High school and college institutional characteristics and self-reported cultural values were also collected. Results: Three-level growth curve analyses revealed greater sleep duration one night was linked with higher waking cortisol (γ=.119, p<.01), lower cortisol awakening responses (CAR; γ=-.070, p=.01), and steeper cortisol slopes (DCS; γ=-.035, p<.01) the next day. Experiencing more congruent campus contexts, but not familism, was associated with greater CAR (γ=.251, p<.05), on average. Familism values moderated day-to-day associations; greater sleep duration one night was associated with steeper DCS the next day for individuals reporting low (b=-.053, p=.003) or average levels of familism (b=-.036, p=.001). Conclusion: Findings illustrate cultural neurobiological processes as longer sleep was linked with healthier diurnal profiles in Latino college students and individual cultural values and exposure to coethnic peers served as protective and promotive factors, respectively.

Adolescence and Early Adulthood in Context

Adolescence and early adulthood are periods of rapid biological and social change, during which stressors can have large, and long-lasting impacts on stress biology and developmental outcomes. Some have termed adolescence a “second sensitive period” due to rapid changes in biology and increases in stress-sensitivity occurring during this period. Although much early research focused on family and peer stressors and daily life events stress in adolescents and young adults, more recent theory and research has highlighted the important impacts of youth exposure to more structural forms of stress emerging from broader neighborhood, societal, and cultural contexts, such as economic stress, or the stress of discrimination based on race, gender identity and/or sexual orientation, especially among minoritized youth. Recent research has also focused on positive aspects of youth development and youth contexts that may protect youth against the negative impacts of stress or promote positive youth development in the face of high stressor exposure. In this set of four talks, researchers each highlight the impacts of different structural/contextual forms of stressors or supports on multiple stress-sensitive aspects of adolescent or young adult biology, and the implications of stress-related alterations in biology for youth health and wellbeing. In the first presentation, Paul Hastings reviews data from the California Families project, a large longitudinal sample of Mexican-origin families, presenting data on how structural stressors and exposures impact multiple youth neurobiological systems. In the second presentation, Luis Parra presents data from multiple studies on the impacts of heterosexist and racist discrimination and hate violence on the adrenocortical functioning, psychosocial adjustment, and mental health of ethnically/racially diverse LGBQ young adults. In the third presentation, Leah Doane examines the impact of cultural values and cultural contexts on the day-to-day links between sleep and diurnal cortisol patterns among Latino college students. In the final presentation, Lindsay Till-Hoyt presents data from two studies focusing on how macro-level sociopolitical events, the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections, differentially affect youth stress (perceived stress and diurnal cortisol patterns) and youth behavior (e.g. civic engagement) depending on their social positions, identities and experiences. Together, these studies highlight the importance of examining diverse samples of youth and considering how broad social, political, economic and cultural contexts intersect to affect youth exposures to stressors and supports, which in turn impact their stress biology and developmental wellbeing.

Context and Neuroendocrine Interplay in the Lab and Everyday Experiences: From Early Life to Adulthood

Context and Neuroendocrine Interplay in the Lab and Everyday Experiences: From Early Life to Adulthood

PLS-SEM Validation for Burnout Measures in Latino College Students: A Socially Sustainable Educational Return

Health care is an essential factor in the social sustainability of the university; therefore, it is a challenge and a responsibility to monitor a safe return to school that ensures the support of the physical and emotional well-being of students. In this sense, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS) is a validated resource with robust techniques in several regions of the world to diagnose school burnout. However, few efforts appear in the literature to validate it from a predictive approach in the Latin region. This study aims to validate, from a predictive approach, measures of school burnout in Latino university students from Mexico and Colombia. A total of 235 surveys were administered (Mx. n = 127, Co. n = 108), and a Partial Least Squares (PLS) measurement model was validated using the statistical program SmartPLS 3.3.7. As a result, 22 valid items were obtained in four reliable subconstructs: burnout, family cynicism, inefficacy, and somatization. The value of this research is its contribution to filling two gaps related to the MBI-SS scale (1) to contribute to the validation of the MBI-SS in a Latin context and (2) the use of the nonparametric statistical technique PLS focused on prediction.

Initial Outcomes for a Stress Management Psychoeducational Group for Latino College Students

ABSTRACT College students endure heightened levels of stress, and Latino college students experience additional stressors associated with their ethnic and cultural status, which places them at an increased risk for maladjustment. Stress management psychoeducational groups can improve college student’s coping. A total of 109 Latino college students participated in a culturally-tailored psychoeducational group. Results suggest positive outcomes and implications for these findings are discussed in the context of cultural values and experiences of Latino college students.

The multiplicative effect of stress and sleep on academic cognitions in Latino college students

ABSTRACT Latino students are increasingly represented in higher education within the United States, but remain one of the groups least likely to graduate from a four-year institution. Stress and sleep are factors that have been implicated in students’ academic success. This study examined concurrent and longitudinal interactive effects of stress and sleep on academic cognitions in a sample of 196 Latino students (Mage = 18.95; 64.4% female) in their second and third semester of college. Stress and actigraphy-measured sleep (duration, efficiency, midpoint, midpoint-variability) were measured in the second semester and academic cognitions (engagement, motivation, self-efficacy) were measured in the second and third semesters. Structural equation modeling revealed that higher stress was concurrently related to lower academic cognitions for students with consistently delayed sleep timings (e.g., later average midpoints) and longitudinally related to reduced academic functioning for students with lower sleep efficiency. These findings can inform programs that target stress-reduction and sleep hygiene among incoming college students.

Understanding the Laws of Harvest: Black and Latino Male Collegians Enacting Critical Race Care as Youth Mentors

Background/Context: In recent years, there has been a proliferation of student engagement programs intended to increase college access, retention, and graduation for Black and Latino males. Although supporting Black and Latino male students’ educational opportunities and success efforts is an urgent need, few studies examine their collective leadership experiences—either on campus or in the community. These experiences are important in understanding how engagement and leadership are vital components for Black and Latino males’ sense of self, community ties, and collective consciousness. Focus of Study: We investigate the collegiate experiences and engagement of 12 Black and Latino male students in the Brothers Empowering Collective Achievement (BECA; pseudonym), a male-centered program at a Hispanic-serving institution. We explored their leadership and mentoring experiences through the following research questions: (1) How do Black and Latino college men make sense of their engagement in a male-centered success program? (2) What factors influence Black and Latino males’ decisions to serve in a leadership capacity as youth mentors? (3) What is the focus of Black and Latino males’ leadership work as youth mentors? (4) What do Black and Latino males take away from their experiences as youth mentors? Intervention/Program/Practice: The BECA program is an academic and social engagement program that was developed in an effort to increase graduation and retention of Latino and Black men. BECA provides professional workshops, one-on-one and small group mentoring, community service opportunities, and various other social activities. In addition, strategic partnerships with local schools allow college students to mentor middle and high school students. Research Design: This qualitative study is based on focus group interviews with 12 Black and Latino male students at a Hispanic-serving institution related to their leadership experiences as youth mentors for local middle school and high school students. Findings/Results: Our findings show that students were nested in, benefited from, and enacted critical race care—expressed as holistic care for youth, which considers their racialized identities and experiences as well as various facets of their lives in supporting their needs and development—through their BECA engagement. According to the men’s narratives, BECA provided a unique opportunity to bring Black and Latino males together to pursue individual and collective goals. In addition, serving in leadership roles as youth mentors within the local community enhanced the men’s sense of self and allowed them to contribute to community education and youth development. Conclusion/Recommendations: This study speaks to the value and benefits Latino and Black men accrue from critical race care. Specifically, being engaged and embedded in a community in which they pursue collective educational and personal goals enhances engagement, leadership, and relationships for Black and Latino college students.

DRIVEN to Change Attitudes Toward Dating Violence: Outcomes From a 6-Month Follow-Up Study

While dating violence (DV) is a significant issue present on college campuses among students of all ethnic groups, research suggests that DV is preventable. As Latino representation at colleges increases, it is important to find DV prevention programs addressing specific sociocultural characteristics of this ethnic group. We created the DRIVEN (Dating Relationships Involving Violence End Now) program to fill a significant need for DV programming tailored to Latino college students. This study examines the durability of initial positive outcomes over a 6-month period. To do so, we conducted a 6-month follow-up with a total of 49 Latino college students attending a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) located on the U.S.-Mexico border. Results suggest DRIVEN outcomes were maintained on the following variables: dating violence attitudes, dating violence victimization and perpetration, and marianismo. Implications for these findings are discussed in the context of implementing group-based programs with college students.

Inside Dating Relationships Involving Violence End Now: Participants’ perspectives at a 6‐month follow‐up

AbstractDating Relationships Involving Violence End Now (DRIVEN) is a recently developed programme that is geared to Latino college students. The current study highlights DRIVEN participants’ perceptions of the programme at six months post‐programme. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 49 programme participants. Interviews were coded using conventional qualitative analysis with a team of seven researchers and resulted in three main themes. Psychological factors included group experience (safety, group cohesion and learning from others) and the impact of group leaders (characteristics and skills). Educational factors include learning about dating violence (DV) information and factors (learning about DV, the influence of Latino culture and Latino gender roles) and learning effective communication skills. The last theme of age group factors stressed personal growth such as gaining self‐awareness and learning how to help others. The themes identified by participants parallel several research findings on the aspects of effective programmes. These aspects, grounded within a group format for a culturally specific population, aid in dating violence prevention efforts.

Youth, family and society: Examining the dynamics of e-cigarette use in Latino college students

Objectives We aimed to document the social factors encouraging and discouraging e-cigarette use amongst Latino college students. Participants Participants were second-generation Latino male college students. Methods We interviewed 20 second-generation Latino male college students, 10 regular smokers and 10 infrequent smokers, at the University of California, Irvine and the University of California, Riverside. Results Regular and infrequent smokers present similar motivations that either encourage or discourage e-cigarette use. Repeated peer-exposure, skepticism of the harmfulness of recreational use, and disagreement with familial views of substance use encourage e-cigarette use. High costs, weak nicotine euphoria, and evidence of health risks discourage e-cigarette use. Conclusions Our results suggest that motivations for e-cigarette use in Latino college students are similar to those of young, non-Latinos and that regular and infrequent users may be determined by temporal circumstances and opportunity as opposed to unique social factors. Further research is warranted to comprehensively investigate this phenomenon.

The Name of Hate

The Name of Hate

Common Sense Illness Beliefs of Diabetes Among At-Risk Latino College Students

This study examined the validity of the Implicit Model of Illness Questionnaire (IMIQ - Schiaffino & Cea, 1995) when used with Latino college students (n = 156; 34% male, 66% female) who are at-risk for developing diabetes due to family history of this disease. An exploratory principal-axis factor analysis yielded four significant factors - curability, personal responsibility, symptom variability/seriousness, and personal attributions - which accounted for 35% of variance and reflected a psychosocial-biomedical common sense perspective of diabetes. Factor-based analyses revealed differences in diabetes illness beliefs based on students' age, generational status, acculturation orientation, and disease experience of the afflicted relative.

Latino Student Retention: A Case Study in Perseverance and Retention

This qualitative single case study explored the lived experience of a first-generation Latino college student in a four-year higher education setting, who despite obstacles, persisted in college. The study revealed the need for a supportive system, both in and out of school, with an understanding and respect for the culture. Moreover, the findings revealed the need to “burst the bubble” leaving the comfort zone, to grow academically and personally. The results of this study offer a valuable perspective to the experiences of a Latino students.