Bohon Et Al-Latinos Adolescents and College

8/11/2019 Bohon Et Al-Latinos Adolescents and College

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Society for the Study of Social Problems

College Aspirations and Expectations among Latino Adolescents in the United StatesAuthor(s): Stephanie A. Bohon, Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson, Bridget K. GormanSource: Social Problems, Vol. 53, No. 2 (May, 2006), pp. 207-225Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of SocialProblemsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4488161

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208

BOHON/JOHNSON/GORMAN

predicated

on

the notion that future educational success

among

adolescents is

contingent

on

current beliefs

that such success

is

desirable and

likely.

Research on

status socialization

theory

is often

guided

by

the status attainment

model,

which

is

designed

to

explain

the

reproduction

of

class

position

across

generations

through

social-psychological processes (Morgan 2005).

Two

particularly

important

orientations

sug-

gested

by

status socialization

theory

are

aspirations (an

adolescent's

desire

to

achieve

high

levels of

education)

and

expectations an

adolescent's assessment of

the likelihood of

achieving

these levels

personally).

Educational

aspirations

and

expectations

have a notable

impact

on

the

educational attainment

process (e.g.,

Hanson

1994;

Hao and Bonstead-Bruns

1998;

Kao

and Tienda

1998).

Aspirations

and

expectations

are

largely

influenced

by

habitus-the accumulation of

past

experience

affected

by

class

socialization, actions,

and observations

(Bourdieu

and

Passeron

1973). Clearly

these

experiences

are

shaped differently

for

minorities

(Morgan

2005).

The

extent

to

which variations

in

background, family

structure,

and

parental expectations

for

their

children's achievement

occur across racial and ethnic

groups suggests

that

educational

aspirations and expectations will vary across these groups as well, as work on African Ameri-

cans has

demonstrated

(Hauser

and Anderson

1991;

Mickelson

1990).

A

major

limitation of

past

research on

aspirations

and

expectations

is that it

has focused

almost

exclusively

on black-white differences

(Hanson

1994;

Hauser and

Anderson

1991;

Hout and

Morgan

1975). Only

a

few studies

examine the

expectations

and

aspirations

of

Latinos,

and

those that

do tend to focus

exclusively

on Mexicans

and Mexican

Americans

(Hao

and

Bonstead-Bruns

1998;

Kandel and Kao

2000;

St-Hilaire

2002),

or

they

treat Latinos

as a

monolithic

group (Kao

and Tienda

1998).

Thus,

in

this article we extend the

current sta-

tus

attainment literature

by

examining

the differences

in

educational

aspirations

and

expec-

tations,

and

the factors

that

produce

them,

among

Cuban,

Puerto

Rican,

and Mexican

origin

youth

in

the United States

(along

with non-Latino

white and black

adolescents).

Specifically,

we

examine

whether adolescents

from

different

Latino

ethnic

backgrounds

differ

from

each

other

and

from non-Latinos

in

the

strength

of

their

college aspirations

and

expectations.

We

also

examine whether

differences

in

college aspirations

and

expectations

(if

any)

can

be

attributed

to

family

and household

characteristics,

parental hopes

for their child's educational

success,

and academic skills and

disengagement,

as

suggested

by

the status

attainment

model.

Aspirations

and

Expectations

Aspirations

and

expectations

are

conceptually

similar,

but educational

aspirations

are

understood to reflect some

degree

of

hopefulness

beyond

what adolescents

realistically expect

to

achieve

(Mickelson 1990). Aspirations,

therefore,

are considered

to

be

somewhat

abstract,

representing idealistic preferences for the future. Indicators of educational aspirations also tap

values,

to

some

degree

(St-Hilaire 2002);

aspirations

for

college may

reflect

students'

recogni-

tion of

the

social

and

economic

importance

of

higher

education rather than

their

personal

desire to

attend

college.

Although aspirations may

at least

partially

reflect the

"internalization

of

objective proba-

bilities for

success"

(Bourdieu

and Passeron

1973:83),

educational

expectations

do so to a

larger

extent. In

comparison

to

aspirations, expectations

are considered

a more

realistic self-assessment

of

a child's

educational future

(Mickelson

1989).

When

aspirations

and

expectations

are

compared, expectations register

lower

than

aspirations,

as would be

expected (Hanson

1994;

St-Hilaire

2002).

The

cognitive

difference

in

expectations

and

aspirations

is

reflected

in

the

finding

that African American children have

significantly higher aspirations

than whites

(Hauser

and Anderson

1991) although

their

expectations

are

often lower

(Morgan 1996).

This

aspiration-expectation

mismatch, then,

reflects

the measurement of

abstract rather than

concrete educational orientations

(Mickelson 1990).


4/20

College Aspirations

among

Latino Adolescents

209

Explanations

for the low

levels

of academic success

among

Latino students

in

the United

States

are

varied,

and

many

involve

in

some

way

the educational

aspirations

and

expecta-

tions of

adolescents. Some researchers have

suggested

low

educational attainment is

directly

related to the

disproportionate tendency

of

Latinos to be

immigrants,

where limited

English

proficiency

and a different orientation toward education reduce both the desire and

ability

to

complete high

school

or to

attend

college

(Van

Hook

2002).

Others contend that

low

educa-

tional

aspirations

and

expectations

are

linked

to

poverty (Rumberger

et al.

1990);

the

high

levels of

poverty among

Latino families

make it

unlikely

that

many

can afford either the cost

of

college

tuition or the

opportunity

cost of

educating

an adolescent who

could, instead,

be

working. Knowing

that

college

is

unaffordable,

adolescents

may

not

allow

themselves the

hope

or desire

for

education

beyond high

school.

Still

other

researchers

have

suggested

that

various

factors related to

minority

status are

reproduced throughout

the

social

structure and

create barriers to

high


(Bourdieu

and Passeron

1973).

For

example,

according

to Alan C. Kerckhoff

(1976),

minority

background

individuals

recognize

that

they

have

greater

barriers to advancement than

non-minorities.

Consequently,

minorities set lower

average goals for themselves. In short, according to these models, social background and race

affect

aspirations

and

expectations;

these

orientations,

in

turn,

affect attainment. It is

likely

that there are a number of

co-varying

factors

that

explain

low educational

aspirations

and

expectations (and attainment) among

Latinos,

but more work is needed to understand the

processes

by

which students

develop

them.

An

examination of both

aspirations

and

expectations

offers

information that

is

relevant to

current

assertions about low educational attainment

among

Latinos. Is Latino educational attain-

ment low

because Latinos

place

a

low

premium

on education

(see

Valencia and Black

2002)?

Or,

as a

disadvantaged

minority,

do Latino adolescents

recognize

the numerous

structural

bar-

riers to

attending college,

causing

them to

be less

optimistic

about their chances

for

high

attain-

ment

(see

Kerckhoff

1976)?

If

both

educational

aspirations

and

expectations

are

low,

one could

conclude that adolescents lack

the desire to attain

higher

levels of

education; if

aspirations

are

high yet

expectations

are

low,

one could

alternatively

conclude that it is not the desire that is

lacking,

but

the

(perhaps realistic)

belief that

the

opportunities

do not exist.

In

either

case,

understanding

the sources

of

such

group

differences

will

enable

educators

and

policymakers

to direct

efforts

more

effectively

toward

improving

Latino

educational

attainment.

Latino

Heterogeneity

and Educational

Orientations

There is

considerable variation

among

Latinos

in

terms

of

country

of

origin,

political

sta-

tus,

economic

standing,

and

other factors

(del

Pinal and

Singer 1997).

These differences

may

have

important

implications

for the

development

of educational

aspirations

and

expectations.

Previous work on Latinos' orientations toward education suggests that Cuban academic suc-

cess

may

be

at least

partially

attributed to

high

levels of trust

in

the educational

system (see

Cheng

and

Starks

2002).

This

trust

stems from

the additional educational

support

accorded

early

waves

of

Cuban

refugees

and the

relatively high

socioeconomic

class of

the

earliest

Cuban

immigrants

(Ogbu

1991;

Velez

1989).

These factors related to

immigrant reception

and modes of

incorporation

into U.S.

society

and

may

be

extremely important

in

the

socio-

economic

success

or failure

of

immigrants, creating

"castelike"

conditions

for some

groups

(Pedraza-Bailey

1985),

especially

those who

have

a

history

of

exclusion from the

primary

means of

upward

mobility.

That the latter is the case for Mexican Americans and Puerto

Ricans has been

widely

noted

(Ogbu

1987;

Pedraza-Bailey

1985;

Vdlez

1989).

Indeed,

the diver-

gent

histories of these

groups

in

the United States

fit John

U.

Ogbu's

(1991)

distinction

between

voluntary

and

involuntary

minorities. Whereas the United States seized

territory

from both

Mexicans

and

Puerto

Ricans,

and both

groups

have been

historically oppressed

in

this

country,

Cubans do not share this

experience.


5/20

210


Given

the

importance

of

country

of

origin

and

modes of

incorporation

in

determining

the

social

position

of

different Latino

groups

(Ogbu

1991;

Portes

and

B6r6cz

1989)

and

the

importance

of

social

position

in

the

development

of

educational orientations

(Bourdieu

and

Passeron

1973),

Latinos cannot be

treated as

a

monolithic

group

for

the

purpose

of

studying

educational aspirations and expectations. This is

especially

true for Mexican, Puerto Rican,

and Cuban

origin

groups,

who

make

up

72

percent

of

the U.S. Latino

population (U.S.

Bureau

of the

Census

2000).

They

have faced

considerably

different

receptions upon

entry

into

the

U.S.

mainland,

ranging

from

often

warmly

welcomed,

in

the case of

Cubans,

to

grudgingly

toler-

ated,

in

the

case

of

Puerto

Ricans,

to often

open hostility,

in

the

case of

Mexicans

(Johnson,

Farrell,

and Guinn

1997;

Portes and

Stepick 1993).

Beyond

differential

receptions

and

modes

of

incorporation,

the

considerable

differences

between these

groups

in

socioeconomic conditions

are also

likely

to be

related to the race

and

class of their

migrant

ancestors. Cubans

and Cuban

Americans

tend

to be middle class

with

income levels

commensurate with

non-Latino

whites,

while Puerto

Ricans are

disproportion-

ately poor.

Mexicans

and Mexican

Americans

are

the

largest

Latino

group

and have the

lowest

average

socioeconomic

status of the three

groups (Cheng

and Starks

2002; Ogbu 1991;

Velez

1989).

Puerto Ricans

may

also

be

disadvantaged

by

their darker

phenotype

in

a

country

where

race

matters

(Massey

and Denton

1993).

This

is

particularly

evident

in

the

poor

socioeco-

nomic conditions of

many

Puerto

Ricans

despite

the

fact that

they

are not

immigrants

and,

therefore,

have the

advantages

of

citizenship

and

early English

language training (Ogbu

1991).

In

this

study,

we take into account

Latino

heterogeneity by

examining potential

differ-

ences

in

college aspirations

and

expectations

across the

three

largest

Latino

groups

and

the

potential

sources of

such differences.

Specifically,

we test

whether

previous

explanations

for

Latinos'

low

average


account

for

differences

in

college aspirations

and

expectations

or

whether

additional ethnic differences

remain. To see

whether

remaining

dif-

ferences reflect the

varied

receptions

and

experiences

of

these

groups

in

the

United

States,

we

examine

immigrant

status,

language

use,

socioeconomic

disadvantage,

and other

family

demographic characteristics. In doing so, we also consider the students' own academic skills

and

level of

engagement

in

school,

in

keeping

with

the status

attainment model.

Given what is

currently

known about

Cubans,

Puerto

Ricans,

and

Mexicans

in

the

United

States,

we

expect

that both

expectations

and

aspirations

will

differ

across the

groups.

Insofar

as

aspirations

reflect

educational

ideals,

it is

likely

that

Puerto Ricans-who are not immi-

grants

and

are,

therefore,

the most

"American"

of

the three

groups-will

have similar

aspira-

tions for

college,

on

average,

as

whites,

although

island-born Puerto Ricans

may

have

slightly

different

aspirations

than

mainland-born,

since

different social conditions

in

the two

places

may shape

whether

college

is

viewed as valuable and

attainable.

Cubans,

who exhibit

high

levels of

trust

in

the

educational

system

(Ogbu 1987)

and

have

traditionally

shown

high

sta-

tus

orientations

(Portes

and

Stepick

1993),

should

have

stronger

college aspirations.

Finally,

we

expect

the

Mexicans

in our

sample

to

exhibit

weaker

college aspirations

than

whites,

as

has been previously demonstrated (Portes and Rumbaut 2001; St-Hilaire

2002).

Educational

expectations

have received much

less attention than

aspirations;

however,

the

general

belief is

that

expectations

act

as

a

proxy

for

the

anticipation

of

blocked

opportuni-

ties

(Hanson

1994).

Consequently,

we would

expect

that,

due to class

differences,

Mexicans

would

have

the

weakest

expectations

for

college

while

Cubans will have the

strongest.

Puerto

Ricans,

who

we

anticipate

will have

aspirations

on

par

with non-Latino

whites,

are

likely

to have

weaker

expectations

due to their underclass

status.

In

this

way,

we

expect

the

patterns

of

college

aspirations

and

expectations

among

Puerto Ricans to mirror those of Afri-

can

Americans

(Mickelson

1990;

Morgan 2005).

In

addition to differences

in

aspirations

and

expectations,

we also

expect

there to be dif-

ferences in the

salience of factors

that

predict

them. Studies that have

explored

between-

group

differences in

various measures of academic

performance have found this to be the

case

(Cheng

and

Starks 2002; V6lez

1989).

Based on these

previous

findings

we

expect,

for

example,

that Mexicans will be

highly

sensitive to income

differences,

while

Cuban children


6/20

College

Aspirations

among

Latino Adolescents

211

will

find easier access

to

college

(and

more

pressure

to

attend)

regardless

of income

differ-

ences.

We

also

expect

that the

effects

of

parental

education will

vary,

since Cuban children

have

been

shown

to

have

high

levels

of educational

attainment

despite

low levels of attain-

ment

by

their

parents

(Portes

and

Rumbaut

2001),

while

Mexicans

and

Puerto Ricans do

not

show this

pattern

(Portes

and Rumbaut 2001; Vernez 1998).

With

regard

to

immigrant generations,

non-citizen

Mexican

students

have limited access

to

student

loans,

federal

grants,

and the instate

tuition

needed to make

college

affordable

(Bohon,

Macpherson,

and Atiles

2005).

This effect will

not

be

evident

for Puerto

Ricans,

who,

whether

mainland-born or island-born

are U.S.

citizens. Neither should these

impedi-

ments

affect most

Cubans,

who,

as

refugees,

are

usually given

greater

access

to

governmen-

tally

funded

programs.

It

should

be

noted, however,

that circular

migration, particularly

among

Puerto Ricans who

can

move

easily

from the island

to the

mainland,

may

distort

the

effects

of

being

first

(and possibly

second) generation.

This will

also

be

true,

to

a

lesser

extent,

for

Mexicans but not Cubans.

English usage

at

home

may

also

have variable

effects across the

groups.

In

general,

speaking English at home implies a more "American" orientation and intent to stay on the

U.S.

mainland

(Portes

and

Rumbaut

2001). Consequently,

we would

expect

that

Mexicans

and Puerto Ricans

who

speak

English

at

home

will

have

expectations

and

aspirations

similar

to

non-Latino

whites who

also

speak

English

at home.

However,

for Cubans-who tend

to be

clustered

in

south

Florida

where Latinos

dominate the

local

economy-speaking

English

has

different connotations

(Portes

and

Stepick

1993).

In the

Miami

area,

speaking

Spanish

is

very

beneficial

for

conducting

business and

a

point

of

pride

among

the

upper

and middle

classes.

Cuban

parents may

make a

conscious

effort to

speak

Spanish

at home to ensure that

their

children

are

bilingual. Additionally,

speaking Spanish

among

Cubans

immigrants

does not

signal

an

expectation

of return

migration

as it

may

for

Mexicans and Puerto

Ricans. Cubans

speaking

English

at

home, therefore,

should have

lower

aspirations

and

expectations

than

Cubans

who do not

(and

lower

than

non-Latino whites

speaking English

at

home).

Data and

Methods

This research

uses data

drawn

from

the

National

Longitudinal Study

of Adolescent

Health

(Add

Health),

a

nationally

representative

study

of American adolescents

in

grades

7 to

12 from

134

middle

and

high

schools

in

80 communities

in 1994

and

1995

(Udry 2003).

Sam-

pling

of

schools was

stratified

by region,

urban

location,

school

type (public

vs.

private),

racial

composition,

and size.

Data

collection

occurred

in

two

steps.

First,

an in-school

questionnaire

was

administered to

all

students

present

in

selected

schools,

resulting

in

over

90,000

com-

pleted

questionnaires.

Second,

a

sub-sample

of students

(and

one

parent

or

parentlike figure)

was selected for in-depth interviews at home. This sample was stratified within schools by sex

and

grade.

All

questionnaires

were

in

English.

Over

80

percent

of selected

students

partici-

pated

in

the in-home interviews

in 1995

(n

=

20,745).

For this

analysis,

we limit

the

in-home interview

sample

to

Mexican,

Puerto

Rican,

and

Cuban

adolescents,

while

for

comparitive purposes

we

include

non-Latino

white and

non-

Latino black

respondents.2

Unfortunately, sample

size

limitations necessitated

the removal

of

other

Latino

groups

from the

analysis.

We

also limit the

sample

to

respondents

with

complete

information

on our

dependent

measures

and

sample

weights,

resulting

in

a

final

sample

size

of

16,545.'

2.

Although

we

acknowledge

important

differences,

for

simplicity,

references

to

Cubans

and Mexicans refer to

both immigrants and U.S.-born residents with Cuban and Mexican ethnicity, unless directly specified.

3.

Missing

values were

imputed

using

the

"impute"

command

in STATA

see

StataCorp

[2003]

for

more

informa-

tion). Missing

values on each

independent

measure

were

imputed

on the

basis

of the other

measures included

in this


7/20

212


The Add Health data offer

an

excellent

opportunity

for

intergroup comparisons,

as

there

are a

large

number of

cases in

each

group.

We

note

two limitations to

using

the Add Health

data for

the

analyses

conducted

here,

however.

First,

Add Health

is a

school-based

question-

naire. As a

consequence,

these data do not include information

on students

who have

dropped

out. Second, the in-home

questionnaire

was administered in

English only.

Conse-

quently,

the

missing

cases

may

be

disproportionately

drawn

from

adolescents with

immigrant

parents.

Admittedly,

the second

problem

is

greater

than

the

first,

since

the omission of

drop-

outs will

yield

resultant

findings

that

are more

conservative than

if

dropouts

were included.

Mexicans and

Puerto

Ricans are more

likely

to

drop

out

than

non-Latino

whites,

and

drop

outs are

likely

to

have

weaker

college

aspirations

and

expectations,

so

any

differences we

observe

in

this

sample

would

likely

be wider

if

we had information from

drop

outs.

Our measure

of

college aspirations

reflects

the

degree

to which

respondents

want to attend

college ("On

a scale of

1

to

5,

where

1

is low and 5

is

high,

how much

do

you

want

to

go

to

college?"). Expectations,

in

contrast,

reflect the

degree

to which

respondents

believe

they

will

attend

college ("On

a scale of

1

to

5,

where

1

is low and 5 is

high,

how

likely

is it that

you

will

go

to college?"). Thus, our measure reflects the strength of the desire for and anticipation of

going

to

college,

a

particularly

salient level

of

educational attainment for

contemporary

ado-

lescents

(Schneider

and

Stevenson

1999).

Our

primary predictor

of

interest is

race/ethnicity,

categorized

as

Cuban,

Puerto

Rican,

Mexican,

non-Latino

white,

and

non-Latino

black. We

also examine the influence of

a

number of factors

typically

considered to

shape

educational

aspirations

and

expectations (see Cheng

and Starks

2002),

including family

characteristics,

the

influence

of

significant

others,

indicators of academic skills

and

behaviors,

age

and

gender.

Family

characteristics include number of

siblings

and a

categorical

measure of

family

struc-

ture:

two

biological/adoptive parents, any

other two

parent family,

mother

only,

and

other.

Given our focus

on Latino adolescents,

we also examine

the

influence

of

immigrant

status

and

English

language

use.

Puerto

Ricans

are not

foreign-born; yet,

we

expect

that the island-

born

will

differ from both the mainland-born with island-born

parents

and the mainland-born

with mainland-born

parents, paralleling

generational

status

among

other Latinos.

Indeed,

there is a

precedent

for

our

treatment

of

island-born Puerto Ricans as similar to

foreign-born,

as

the

island-born versus mainland-born distinction

parallels

the native-born versus

foreign-

born distinction

for

other outcomes

(see

Landale,

Oropesa,

and Gorman

1999;

Zsembik and

Fennell

2005). Consequently,

we differentiate

first

generation (born

outside the

U.S.

mainland),

second

generation

(U.S.-born

with at least one

parent

born

outside

of

the U.S.

mainland),

and

third

generation

(U.S.-born

with

U.S.-born

parents).

We also

measure whether

or

not

English

is

usually spoken

at home

(1

=

yes,

0

= no).

Two measures of

family

socioeconomic status are also

included.

Income is

a

continuous

measure

of

the natural

log

of total

family

income

in

1994.

An

ordinal measure

of

parental

education is also

included,

representing

the

highest

level of

completed schooling

of

the

respondent's mother or father, whichever is greater. The categories are educational attain-

ment

less

than

a

high

school

diploma,

a

high

school

diploma

or

equivalent (including

those

who attended some

college

but did not achieve at least a bachelor's

degree),

and an earned

bachelor's

degree

or

better.

High

school

graduates

are our reference

group.

Parents'

aspiration

for

the adolescent is constructed as

an

averaged

index

of

four

items

("How disappointed

would

your

mother

[father]

be

if

you

did not

graduate

from

high

school?"

and

"How

disappointed

would

your

mother

[father]

be if

you

did

not

graduate

from

college?")

Responses ranged

from

1

=

low

disappointment,

to 5

=

high disappointment

(o

=

.80).

analysis (percent missing

included

in

parentheses):

parental

education

(1.69),

family

income

(24.27), parent college

aspirations

for R

(2.16),

school

disengagement

score

(1.87),

self-rated

intelligence (0.16),

and

PVT

score

(4.94).

Given

the high rate of missing values that were imputed for family income (24.27), we re-estimated all the included regression

models

with

a control that

flagged imputed

cases. In

all

models the control was not

significant,

and thus was not

retained.


8/20

College Aspirations among

Latino Adolescents 213

We measure both academic skills and

engagement

in

school. One

measure

of

academic

skills is a

continuous

score

on

the Add Health

Picture

Vocabulary

Test

(PVT).

This test was

derived from

the

Peabody

Picture

Vocabulary

Test-Revised

(PPVT-R)

that

measures the hear-

ing (receptive)

vocabulary

for Standard American

English

(Dunn

and Dunn

1981)

and is

often

interpreted

as a

gauge

of verbal

ability.

The PVT included in Add Health differs from the

PPVT-R

n

that

only

half of the

original

items

were administered. Raw

scores were

age

stan-

dardized with a mean

of 100 and a

standard

deviation

of 15. A

second

measure

of

academic

skills is the

respondents'

self-rated

intelligence ("Compared

with other

people

your

age,

how

intelligent

are

you?"),

where

1

=

moderately

below

average,

and 6

=

extremely

above

average.

Our measure of academic

disengagement

is based on

responses

to three

items:

in

the

past

school

year,

how

many

times

the

adolescent

skipped

school,

had trouble

paying

attention

in

school,

and had trouble

getting

homework

done

(Johnson,

Crosnoe,

and

Elder

2001).

For

the

first

item,

the

responses

are

collapsed

into five

categories (0,

1-2,

2-5, 6-9,

10+

days).

Responses ranged

from 0

(never)

to

4

(every day)

for

the second and third items.

The

three items

are

averaged,

as

long

as at

least

two are not

missing,

to create the

composite

scale

(o"

=

.61).

Finally, we include measures of age and gender. Of these, age is particularly important

since

younger

adolescents

may

be

more

optimistic

about their educational

future than older

children.

In

many

studies

(e.g.,

Hanson

1994;

Morgan

1996)

researchers

minimize

this

prob-

lem

by

using

same

grade

respondents;

however,

sample

size considerations

do not

allow

us to

both select

same-grade

respondents

and

also examine Latino

heterogeneity.4

Due

to the

complex sampling strategy employed

to collect the

data

(a

multistage,

strati-

fied, school-based,

cluster

sampling design),

models

are

estimated

using

the Huber/White

estimator

of

variance

(see

Chantala

and

Tabor

1999).

Rather

than

assuming

that

observations

are

independent,

the

estimation

procedures

we

use correct

for intracluster

correlation,

pro-

ducing

standard errors that

are

more accurate

and

reducing

the

chance

of

false-positive

sig-

nificance tests. In

addition,

weights

are also

used

in all

analyses

due

to the fact that some

ethnic/racial

groups

were

oversampled.

Results

Descriptive

statistics

are

presented

in Table

1.

They

show

strong aspirations

for

and

expectations

of

college

attendance across

each of the five

groups. Important

differences across

ethnic

groups

exist,

however.

As

anticipated,

Mexicans have weaker than

average (and

weaker

than non-Latino white

and

black)

and Cubans have

stronger

than

average aspirations

and

expectations compared

to all other

groups.

Puerto

Ricans'

aspirations

are lower than non-

Latino

blacks',

while

Puerto

Rican

expectations

are lower than non-Latino

blacks

and

whites.5

Differential

aspirations

and

expectations

may

be

explained

by

the considerable

differ-

ences in family and household characteristics, parental hopes for their child's educational

success,

and academic

skills and

disengagement.

It is worth

noting

that the

reported

income

for Cubans in this

study

is lower than for

Puerto

Ricans

and non-Latino

whites,

which

is

inconsistent with

the fact

that

Cubans

in

the

United States have income

levels commensurate

with

non-Latino whites

(U.S.

Bureau of

the Census

2000).

The

finding

with

regard

to this

sample

may

reflect

that the Cuban adolescent

respondents

in

the

Add Health

survey

are dis-

proportionately

immigrants

themselves,

and

many

of the

(also disproportionate)

second

gen-

eration

may

be

children of the last waves of Cubans

arriving

after

the

1959

Revolution.

That

4. To examine this issue

further,

we

replicated

all

analyses

in

this

study

eliminating respondents

who were seniors

in

high

school and

likely

to have

their

college plans

fixed. The

resulting analyses (available upon

request)

were

not

markedly

different

from those

presented

here.

5. The p-values on the difference of means tests between Puerto Ricans and whites and Puerto Ricans and blacks

were

.055 and

.046,

respectively.

That

Puerto Ricans do

not

appear

to have

aspirations

significantly

different

from non-

Latino

whites is

likely

to

be

due to the

adjustment

for standard

errors

in

our

estimation

procedures.


9/20

Table

1

*

Adolescents'

Responses

to School-Based

Questionnaire,

Weighted

Means

(SD)

and

Percentages

for

Dependent

a

Full

Sample

Non-Latino

White

Non-Latino

Black

Mexican

(n

=

16,545)

(n

=

9,962) (n

=

4,000)

(n

=

1,583)

How

much

R

wants to

go

to

college

4.4

(1.0)

4.4

(1.0)

4.4

(1.2)

4.2

(1.3)ab

How

likely R

will go to college

4.1

(1.2) 4.2 (1.0)

4.1

(1.4)

3.7 (1.4)ab

Age

of

adolescent,

years

15.9

(1.8)

15.9

(1.6)

16.1

(2.2)

16.0

(2.1)

Female,

%

49.3

49.1

50.5

48.8

Number

of

siblings

1.3

(0.9)

1.2

(0.8)

1.3

(1.2)a

1.8

(1.2)ab

Family

structure,

%

Two

biological/adoptive

parents

53.1

59.0

28.2a

55.4b

Other

two

parent

17.4

18.2 14.4a

15.3

Mom

only

20.7

15.3

43.0a

19.1b

Other

8.8

7.4

14.4a 10.2ab

Immigrant

status,

%

First

generation

3.4

1.4

2.0

21.7ab

Second

generation

5.6

3.2

2.7

28.0ab

Third or

higher

generation

91.0

95.4

95.4

50.3ab

English

spoken

in

home

95.2

99.3

99.4

55.1ab

Family

income

in

dollars,

logged

3.5

(0.8)

3.7

(0.6)

3.1

(1.0)a

3.1

(0.9)a

Parental

education,

%

Less

than

high

school

12.0

6.7

16.la

49.2ab

High

school

graduate

58.8

59.7

63.2 40.6ab

College graduate

29.3

33.6 20.7a

10.2ab

Parent

college aspirations

for

R

3.9

(1.2)

3.9

(1.1)

4.0

(1.5)

3.8

(1.4)b

PVT score

101.7

(13.3)

104.8 (10.6)

93.1

(15.1)a

92.7

(16.1)a

Self-rated

intelligence

3.8

(1.1)

3.9

(0.9)

4.0

(1.4)

3.4

(1.2)ab

School

disengagement

score

1.0

(0.8)

1.0

(0.7)

0.9

(0.9)a 1.1

(1.0)b

Source:

Data

from National

Longitudinal

Study

of Adolescent

Health

(Add

Health;

Udry

2003).

Note:

p

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