Latino Students Connection To Their Family Essay

Latino students share strong connections to their families. According to earlier studies on the Latino culture, “familism” is defined as the value and emotional bond Latinos have to their families (Valdes, 1996; Vega, 1995). Hernandez (2002) found that Latino students are emotionally and socially attached to their family members, which may include parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. It is also the case that in the Latino culture, students share a household with extended relatives, which also creates strong family connections with their extended family members as well (Hernandez, 2002). The support of family plays a positive role in the education experience of Latino students. Martinez and Cervera (2012) found that Latino parents provide support and encouragement to their children in regards to their …show more content…
This finding is also associated with the fact that many parents of Latino students lack sufficient knowledge about the higher education system and may not offer the best advice as they may not have gone to college (Schneider et al., 2006). In fact, a study by Martinez and Cervera (2012) found that in comparison to Asian and White parents, Latino parents had the lowest level of bachelor’s degree completion. Latino students’ strong ties to their family members provide negative and positive elements that influence their degree attainment. Valdez (2008) found that Latino students are affected by their family member’s opinions about education, which in turn can positively or negatively affect their decisions to pursue their education at a community college or 4-year university. Person and Rosenbaum (2006) found that when it comes to college choice, Latino students relied on their family for advice and support and make decisions solely on the opinions of their family