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Familism Helps and Hinders Hispanic College Success
September 2009 America’s preoccupation with illegal immigration and the growing Hispanic population has fueled anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic sentiment. Like African-American students, Hispanic students often face prejudice in school. But that raises the question: Why are Hispanic students’ college application rates so much lower than those of black students, even though both groups are affected by the racial climate? Only 22 percent of Hispanics between the ages of 18 and 24 enrolled in a postsecondary institution in 2000, compared to 39 percent of whites and 31 percent of blacks in this age bracket. In 1980, only 8 percent of college graduates were Hispanic, and that percentage rose a mere two points in 2000, a paltry increase given the rapid demographic growth of Hispanic youth over the last two decades. Family income level, parental education, school quality, and immigrant status all affect Hispanic students’ educational success. But these cannot fully account for Hispanic underachievement, says UW–Madison sociology professor Ruth López Turley. Many studies have concluded that familism is especially pronounced in Hispanic culture, and that it both helps and hinders Hispanic students. López Turley and co-author Matthew Desmond define familism as a social pattern whereby one’s individual interests, decisions, and actions are conditioned by a network of relatives that takes priority over the individual. Hispanics, and Mexican-Americans in particular, live in larger and denser kinship networks than whites. Hispanic adults and adolescents value interdependence and family obligations more so than whites.Compared to Hispanics, blacks are nearly twice as likely to complete college; whites are over three times as likely. By one estimate, 49 percent of Asians, 30 percent of whites, and 16 percent of blacks enrolled in kindergarten today will grow up to earn a bachelor’s degree. Only 6 percent of Hispanics will. Hispanic students are falling through the cracks even as the Hispanic population is rising at a pace that is fundamentally altering the American landscape. The Hispanic population currently constitutes about 12 percent of the total U.S. population. Hispanics grew by about 57 percent between 1990 and 2000, compared to a 13 percent growth for the total U.S. population during that time period. If current levels of educational disadvantage continue as the Hispanic population expands, then an increasing fraction of the U.S. population will be insufficiently prepared for work and civic life. Some college-bound Hispanic students find themselves pulled in two directions: They want to cultivate themselves. They’re willing to leave home, if the best education requires it. At the same time, another impulse encourages them to stay at home and uphold family ties that help shape their identity. In a study of high school seniors, López Turley found that Hispanics are the most likely to say it’s important to live at home during college, even those with college-educated parents. But students who say it is important to stay home are significantly less likely to apply to college, especially to selective institutions. Her recent study used data from the Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project. The study sample included 13,803 seniors attending 96 Texas public high schools in spring 2002. Compared to whites and blacks, Hispanic high school seniors were significantly less likely to apply to:
It’s important for educators to better understand Hispanic students’ desire to live at home during college, and the consequences of this decision on educational outcomes, says López Turley. Living away from home cultivates students’ independence and establishes bonds of mutual respect between parents and children. By comparison, students who stay home while attending school obtain lower levels of educational attainment. Living at home often whittles away students’ aspirations where family-related responsibilities confront them. Familism should not be thought of monochromatically, says López Turley. Familism may help bring about an array of positive outcomes as well as an equally impressive array of negative consequences. Likewise, familism can exert simultaneously mixed effects on similar outcomes: A stable family life can encourage academic success even as it attenuates students’ horizon of postsecondary possibilities. Finally, familism within one community may look nothing like familism in another and, therefore, may exhibit very different effects. The following agencies supported this research: The Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Spencer Foundation, National Science Foundation, The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and Princeton’s Office of Population Research.
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