From Barrios to Yale: The Role of Parenting Strategies in Latino Families

Abstract

This study relies on qualitative methods to investigate the role of parents and home characteristics in the academic success of Latino/a students from impoverished, immigrant families. The primary goal is to identify parenting practices that contribute to the academic achievement of poor Latino students. Ten first-generation, U.S.-born, Latino students attending Yale University were interviewed for this study. All of the students were the first in their families to receive a college degree. The findings identified four family background characteristics that contributed to their scholarly achievement. The four themes were (a) a strong parental commitment to the importance of education, (b) parental facilitation of their child's autonomy, (c) an array of nonverbal, parental expressions of support for educational goals and tasks, and (d) the presence of supportive faculty mentors and role models in the students' lives.