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. 2025 Mar;54(3):785-806.
doi: 10.1007/s10964-024-02098-0. Epub 2024 Oct 9.

Identifying Culturally Relevant School Support Profiles and Links to Academic Functioning in Adolescents

Maciel M Hernández  1 , Olga Kornienko  2 , Jennifer M Figueroa #  3 , Marita Coker #  2 , Karenina Paredes #  3 , Caroline Toth #  2 , Julia P Carrillo #  4 , Adam A Rogers  5 , Thao Ha  3
Affiliations

Identifying Culturally Relevant School Support Profiles and Links to Academic Functioning in Adolescents

Maciel M Hernández et al. J Youth Adolesc. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

There is limited knowledge about patterns of adolescents' experiences of general teacher support and support for critical consciousness and cultural competence development in school settings, which are key experiences proposed to promote academic functioning. Furthermore, less is known about potential developmental and ethnic-racial differences in these patterns. Using a person-centered approach, this study examined culturally relevant school support profiles in a sample of sixth and ninth grade students (N = 717; 49.9% girls) from the U.S. Southwest. Participants were aged 10 to 18 years (M = 13.73; SD = 1.54) and were ethnoracially diverse (31.8% Hispanic/Latinx, 31.5% Multiethnic, 25.7% White, 7.3% Black or African American, 1.4% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 1.4% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 1% Arab, Middle Eastern, or North African). Four culturally relevant school support profiles were identified: (1) low general, devoid cultural & critical support; (2) moderate general, moderate cultural, & devoid critical support; (3) high general, moderate cultural & critical support; and (4) high general, cultural, & critical support. Youth in the high general, cultural, & critical support profile had higher concurrent emotional and behavioral engagement. No significant differences were found between early (6th grade) and middle adolescent (9th grade) youth, pointing to the relevance and associations of the identified profiles across development. One significant difference emerged when comparing White and ethnoracially minoritized youth; among White youth, those in the high general, cultural, & critical support and high general, moderate cultural & critical support profiles had higher academic expectations than those in the low general, devoid cultural & critical support profile. The discussion focuses on characterizing heterogeneous and culturally relevant school support profiles, the associations between these profiles and indicators of academic functioning for ethnoracially diverse youth to advance developmental theory and the importance of promoting culturally relevant school support practices to foster developmental competencies among youth.

Keywords: Academic functioning; Adolescence; Culturally relevant school support; Teacher support.

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Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with Ethical Standards. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical Approval: All study recruitment and measurement procedures were approved by the school district and the Arizona State University’s Institutional Review Board. Informed Consent: Active parental consent and youth assent were obtained from all participants.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Aim 1: Means and Proportions of Culturally Relevant School Support Latent Profiles. Note. Average culturally relevant school support scores are depicted under each profile label. Profile indicator scores were tested for equivalence across and within profiles. Scores with the same superscript letter (a, b, c) represent equivalent scores based on Wald-tests of equivalence and all other scores were significantly different from each other (p < .05). Latent profile proportions are based on the classified profile membership final count
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