A Person-Centered Analysis of Adolescent Multicultural Socialization Niches and Academic Functioning

Despite the growing cultural diversity worldwide, there is scarce research on how socialization processes prepare youth to respond to increasing multicultural demands and the degree to which these socialization opportunities inform youth academic functioning. This study used a person-centered approach to identify profiles or niches based on the degree and consistency of multicultural socialization experiences across school, peer, and family settings and to examine the associations between identified niches and markers of academic functioning (i.e., emotional and behavioral academic engagement, academic aspirations and expectations) in a sample of adolescents (N = 717; M-age = 13.73 years). Participants (49.9% girls) were from the U.S. Southwest and represented multiple ethno-racial backgrounds (31.8% Hispanic/Latinx, 31.5% Multiethnic, 25.7% White, 7.3% Black or African American, 1.4% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 1.4% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 1% Arab, Middle Eastern, or North African). Six distinct multicultural socialization niches were identified. Three niches had similar patterns across school-peer-family but ranged in the degree of socialization. The cross-setting similar higher socialization niche (Niche 6) demonstrated greater socialization than the cross-setting similar moderate (Niche 5) and lower socialization (Niche 4) niches, which had moderate and lower socialization, respectively. Three niches demonstrated cross-setting dissimilarity which ranged in the type of cross-setting contrast and the degree of socialization. The cross-setting dissimilar school contrast socialization niche (Niche 3) had greater dissimilarities between socialization opportunities in the school setting compared to the peer and family settings and demonstrated the lowest levels of socialization of all niches. The other two niches, the cross-setting dissimilar peer contrast (Niche 1) and greater peer contrast socialization (Niche 2) niches had larger dissimilarities between socialization opportunities in the peer setting than the school and family settings. In the former, however, the contrast was lower, and socialization ranged between very low to low. In the latter, the contrast was higher and socialization ranged from very low to moderate. Most adolescents were in the cross-setting similar lower socialization niche or in the cross-setting dissimilar niches. Adolescents in the cross-setting similar higher multicultural socialization demonstrated greater emotional and behavioral academic engagement than adolescents in most of the other niches. Adolescents in the cross-setting dissimilar school contrast niches demonstrated lower emotional and behavioral academic engagement and lower academic expectations than adolescents in some of the other niches. The results emphasize the collective role of school, peer, and family multicultural socialization on emotional and behavioral academic engagement.