The Relationship Among Ethnic Identity, Psychological Well-being, Academic Achievement, and Intergroup Competence of School-age Hispanic/Latino Youth

Abstract

The past few decades have witnessed unprecedented changes increase in the numbers of ethnic minorities in our Nations' public schools. Due to changes in demographic scene of our country, serious concerns have been raised with regards to mental health and academic achievement of school-age children from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The major purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between a set of psychological well-being variables (life satisfaction, self-esteem, and ethnic identity), mental health (depression), intergroup interactional competence, and academic achievement. A total number of 131 subjects in grades 9th through 12th were sampled to participate in the study. All sampled subjects came from low social economic status families of Mexican-American ethnic background. Seven measures were administered to each student in small groups of 10-12 students each. These measures have been found to have adequate reliability and validity in previous studies (Suzuki-Crumly & Hyers, 2004). However, the reliability of all the measures was also assessed in this study and was found to be in the moderate to high range. Implications of the study as well as recommendations for future research in this area are discussed.