Using a Positive Psychology and Family Framework to Understand Mexican American Adolescents’ College-Going Beliefs

Abstract

Positive psychology is a useful framework to understand Mexican American adolescents’ academic experiences. We used a quantitative, predictive design to explore how presence of meaning in life, search for meaning in life, subjective happiness, hope, and family importance influenced 131 Mexican American adolescents’ college-going beliefs. We used the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Subjective Happiness Scale, Hope Scale, Pan-Hispanic Familism Scale, and College-Going Self-Efficacy Scale to measure the aforementioned factors. Using multiple regression analysis, findings indicated that hope and familism were significant predictors of college-going beliefs. Higher levels of hope and familism positively predicted college-going beliefs. We provide a discussion regarding the importance of these findings as well as recommendations for future research.