The Influence of Gender, Generation Level, Parents' Education Level, And Perceived Barriers on the Educational Aspirations of Mexican American High School Students (Brief Report‪)‬

A portion of social-cognitive career theory (R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) was tested by examining contextual factors related to the educational aspirations of 186 Mexican American high school students. A 3-step hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine the influence of gender, generation level, parents' education level, and perceived educational barriers on educational aspirations. Results indicated that perceived educational barriers significantly predicted students' educational aspirations above and beyond the influence of gender, generation level, and parents' education level. Implications for Mexican American students' educational goals are provided. In a study on educational aspirations, 90% of Mexican American junior high school students reported the following: "Education is the key to get ahead in this country. I'll get as much education as I can" (St-Hilaire, 2002, p. 1033). Nearly 50% of these students indicated aspirations of attending graduate school, yet only 30% of the students expected to reach that level. Clearly, Mexican Americans recognize the importance of an education; however, only 57% graduate from high school, and a mere 11% matriculate from college (Stoops, 2004). Bearing in mind that 35% of the Latina/o U.S. population is younger than 18 years old, it is important to examine the academic achievement of Latina/o youth, particularly youth of Mexican descent, because this subgroup represents more than half of the total Latina/o U.S. population (Ramirez & de la Cruz, 2003) and is a sizable group in the primary and secondary school pipeline. Thus, the main purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of several person-level variables on the educational aspirations of Mexican American high school students.