UC Irvine

Given that structural and social inequities in the U.S. curtail many developmental opportunities for Latinx adolescents, it is essential to identify and develop supportive infrastructures for Latinx adolescents (National Academy of Sciences, 2019). Families and organized activities have been identified as important developmental contexts for the positive development of adolescents (Mahoney et al, 2009; Simpkins et al., 2015; Vandell et al., 2015). However, further research is needed to understand how the connection between Latinx families and organized activities can support or constrain the positive development of Latinx adolescents. Based on the gaps in the literature, this dissertation aimed to examine the relations between Latinx families, organized activities, and Latinx adolescent development, while considering the heterogeneity in the sociocultural backgrounds of Latinx families. This dissertation specifically focused on families and adolescents of Mexican origin. In Paper 1, we used qualitative interview data to examine Mexican-origin parents’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges of participating in organized activities for their families. We also conducted a cross-case analysis to determine whether parents’ perceptions varied based on parents’ level of enculturation. Findings revealed that organized activities positively contributed to family relationships and dynamics and reinforced the ethnic cultural socialization from families. However, constraints on family resources and a cultural mismatch between families and organized activities compromised adolescents’ continued participation in the activity. Parents who had a higher enculturation to the Mexican ethnic culture were more likely to mention adherence to their ethnic culture as a benefit of organized activities and misalignment with their ethnic culture as a challenge. Expanding from Paper 1, Paper 2 captured the college preparation capital that families and organized activities provided to Mexican-origin adolescents during high school. We also examined how the college preparation capital from organized activities complemented the capital from families and whether the forms of college preparation capital that students reported differed based on their parents’ college education. For the method, we qualitatively analyzed retrospective, semi-structured interviews with Mexican-origin college students from a high-ranking, 4-year, public university. The findings show that Mexican-origin families were resourceful in providing different forms of college preparation capital to their adolescents, including aspirational capital grounded in their cultural knowledge, and dominant forms of capital like social capital. Organized activities played a valuable role in complementing the college preparation capital from families with unique forms of navigational and aspirational capital. Lastly, Mexican-origin students with college-educated parents reported receiving more aspirational and social capital from their organized activities compared to students whose parents did not attend college. In the two dissertation papers, we find that cultural socialization and access to skills, knowledge, and resources across families and organized activities shape the developmental opportunities for Mexican-origin adolescents. Moreover, the nature of the relations between families, organized activities, and the development of Mexican-origin adolescents varied based on sociocultural factors. Overall, the findings from this dissertation have valuable theoretical, empirical, and practical implications for scholars, families, organized activities, and other key stakeholders that seek to improve the developmental opportunities for Mexican-origin adolescents.