Low-Income Hispanic and Latino High School Students’ Perceptions of Parent and Peer Academic Support

Socioeconomic status and parental support play important roles in determining academic achievement and have been positively correlated with academic success. It is important to determine if students from low-socioeconomic-status (SES) families perceive less parent support than students from middle-SES families. The participants (n = 54) were high school 9th graders who, with parental consent, completed an online survey. The survey was composed of questions from several instruments: Latino Youth Survey Questionnaire, Family Affluence Scale, and Academic Self-efficacy scale (2005). The scales measure three types of parental support: emotional support, monitoring of schoolwork/activities, and parental school involvement. Results of a 2 (ethnicity: Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic) × 2 (parent occupation: professional vs. non-professional) ANOVA revealed no significant differences in perceived parental and peer support. Only parent emotional support was found to be a consistently significant variable. A simultaneous regression analysis revealed that perceived parent emotional support was a more significant predictor (beta = .53, t = 4.03, p < .001) than perceived peer support (beta = .18, ns) in predicting academic self-efficacy scores. These findings indicate the need to emphasize to parents the importance of providing support, particularly emotional support, for their children.