Parents and friends are important influences on adolescents’ academic outcomes. We examine whether and how adolescents’ social networks compensate for or enhance the effects of their parents’ education on academic outcomes. Among a large ethnoracially diverse sample of high school students in the Southwestern (
The current study used survey data from 786 African American mother–adolescent (
- PAR ID:
- 10474311
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Research on Adolescence
- Volume:
- 33
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 1050-8392
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 1407-1421
- Size(s):
- p. 1407-1421
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract N = 2,136) and Midwestern (N = 1,055) United States, results from network autocorrelation models showed that higher levels of mother and father education were related to greater academic self‐efficacy and engagement and higher aspirations, expectations, and grade point averages at both schools. Friends’ parents’ education levels were positively associated with adolescents’ academic aspirations, expectations, and grade point averages across all of the models; higher levels of friends’ parents’ education were related to greater academic self‐efficacy across all models, except for mothers in the Southwest; and friends’ fathers’ education levels were positively related to adolescents’ academic engagement for students in the Midwestern school only. There were no significant interaction effects between parents’ and friends’ parents’ education levels in predicting academic outcomes. Differences in the distribution of parental education across ethnic‐racial groups shaped the implications of the model for adolescents’ academic adjustment. Findings highlight the impact of educational opportunity across generations in shaping academic inequities. -
Historic racial disparities in the United States have created an urgent need for evidence‐based strategies promoting African American students’ academic performance via school‐based ethnic‐racial socialization and identity development. However, the temporal order among socialization, identity, and academic performance remains unclear in extant literature. This longitudinal study examined whether school cultural socialization predicted 961 African American adolescents’ grade point averages through their ethnic‐racial identities (49.6% males;
M age = 13.60; 91.9% qualified for free lunch). Results revealed that youth who perceived more school cultural socialization had better grades 1 and 2 years later. In addition, identity commitment (but not exploration) fully mediated these relations. Implications for how educators can help adolescents of color succeed in schools are discussed. -
Employing an intersectionality‐informed approach, this investigation examines how school discrimination and disciplinary inequities shape Black adolescent boys’ and girls’ adjustment. One hundred and twenty‐six adolescents (
M = 11.88 years;SD = 1.02) residing in the Southeastern United States comprised the study sample. Results indicated that school discrimination was associated with greater depressive symptoms, lower academic persistence, and lower school satisfaction (at 1‐year follow‐up). In a counterintuitive pattern, adolescents’ perceptions of disciplinary inequities were associated with greater persistence. This investigation provided partial support for gender variation. Perceptions of school disciplinary inequities were associated with lower educational aspirations for girls, whereas systemic school discrimination was more strongly associated with boys’ educational aspirations. Overall, our study suggests that school‐specific systemic discrimination and disciplinary practices shape Black adolescents’ adjustment. -
Summary This study investigates how sleep regularity moderates the association between ethnic/racial discrimination and academic grades among diverse adolescents. The study included a 14‐day, daily diary and actigraphy study of ninth‐grade adolescents in the United States (
N = 265; mean [SD] age 15.26 [0.62] years, 41.51% Asian, 21.13% Black, 37.35% Latinx, 71.32% female) who completed measures of demographic information and ethnic/racial discrimination (Daily Life Experiences Racism and Bother subscale). Sleep data were collected for 14 consecutive days with wrist actigraphy, and sleep regularity was calculated using the Sleep Regularity Index (SRI). Academic grades were provided by the Department of Education. Discrimination frequency was associated with lower academic grades, and the SRI moderated this association. Compared to adolescents who had moderate and regular SRI profiles, adolescents with irregular SRI (i.e., lower sleep regularity) had stronger negative associations between discrimination and grades. On the other hand, for adolescents who had moderate to high sleep regularity, there was no significant association between discrimination and grades. This study underscores the importance of sleep regularity for adolescents’ academic achievement. -
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