Parental Absence, Academic Competence, and Expectations in Latino Immigrant Youth

Academic outcomes as a function of parental absence were examined among 268 newly immigrant Latino youth from Argentina, Colombia, and Cuba. Participants experienced parental absence as a result of divorce, parental death, and serial migration. Students who experienced parental absence reported lower achievement expectations. Parental death, prolonged parental absence, and serial migration negatively affected the academic competence and expectations of students. The extent to which parental absence related to competence and expectations through potential mediating factors was assessed with structural equation modeling. Overall, the model was able to explain some of the relationship between parental absence and the academic competence and expectations of these Latino immigrant students.