Hispanic pre-adolescents' academic resilience: Examining gender, Hispanicism, and school belonging, as predictors of academic achievement, and relating level of linguistic validation in the school context to school belonging

A significant percentage of Hispanic students are at risk for academic failure. However, there is a dearth of research on the resilience mechanisms that serve to protect Hispanic students from poor academic outcomes. Within the limited number of studies that have sought to identify ethnicity-linked resilience factors for Hispanic students, there have been few efforts to assess the role of with-in group variables such as level of Hispanic enculturation (Hispanicism) or level of adherence to traditional Hispanic values. The purposes of this study were to: (1) explore and quantify the relationship between school belonging and academic achievement among Hispanic pre-adolescents; (2) determine whether gender and Hispanicism moderate the relationship between school belonging and academic achievement among Hispanic pre-adolescents; and, (3) examine whether school belonging significantly varies depending upon whether students' valuing of Spanish is or is not matched by the level of Spanish valuing in the school context. Three hundred sixty four 4 th to 6th grade students (from five elementary schools) participated in the study; 100% of the sample was Hispanic, 77.7% were designated as students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Results indicated that school belonging was positively related to academic achievement, even when controlling for gender. In addition, there were significant relationships between gender, Hispanicism, school belonging and academic achievement. In general, female gender and school belonging were positively associated with academic achievement, while Hispanicism was negatively associated with academic achievement. Finally, results indicated that school belonging levels were greater for those students who experienced a match ("high-fit") between their own level of Valuing of Speaking Spanish (individual's characteristics) and the level of Spanish Validation in the School Context (characteristics of the ecological context) relative to students who do not experience this match ("low-fit"). The implications of these findings, directions for future research, and limitations of the study are discussed.