Latina/o/x Immigrant Youth's Motivations for Disclosing their Family-Undocumented Experiences to a Teacher(s): A Latent Transition Analysis

Using the revelation risk model (RRM), we examined factors that might motivate family-undocumented youth (i.e., youth who are undocumented or who have an immediate family member who is undocumented) to confide in a teacher(s). Latent transition analysis with 414 Latina/o/x 9(th)-12(th) grade students uncovered three profiles: concerned indirect revealers (i.e., moderate teacher-student relational closeness, highest perceived risk of disclosing, lowest communication efficacy, moderate indirect disclosure, low direct disclosure), relationally-close revealers (i.e., strongest teacher-student closeness, low perceived risk of disclosing, low communication efficacy, and highest moderate indirect and direct disclosure), and confident nonrevealers (i.e., moderate teacher-student closeness, lowest perceived risk of disclosing, highest communication efficacy, and lowest indirect and direct disclosure). Greater fear of deportation at Wave 1 predicted relationally-close revealers becoming concerned indirect revealers three months later. These findings identify experiences that could affect the extent to which family-undocumented youth turn to a teacher(s), which has implications for youth's well-being.