How Does Political Socialization Shape Latino Adolescents’ Identity?

• In Event: Intragroup Differences and Identity among Latinos and Black Americans

Abstract

My research question is, "How does familial, peer, and educational political socialization influence the political identity of Latino adolescents?" This study uses a qualitative and quantitative design that explores how the family as an agent of socialization influences the political group identity of Latinos. I pursued this to understand further the longitudinal impact of adolescent socialization, specifically on the political identity of Latinos in California.
I also explored how adolescent political socialization is vital in shaping one's political identity that remains intact throughout adulthood. I specifically focused on Latino adolescents to explore the unique experiences of growing up in a Latino household and attending school with Latino peers and what that does to shape one's political identity. I further sought to understand how family socialization creates a causal influence, resulting in heterogeneous effects across individuals and ages in different generations. This topic is essential to understand how Latino adolescents often are catalysts in influencing their parents’ political attitudes and values, supported by the change of views in changing settings. My findings also make it significant to study cohort-centric political attitudes established during adolescence. I also explore The agents of education and peers to see how being in a classroom environment with Latino peers affects cohort-centric behaviors, practices, and ideologies stemming from similar academic experiences.



I did focus groups in two different sessions; coming first were the older Latino (14-19-year-old) adolescents, given there are more IRB limitations and consent forms that are required to interview minors under the age of 15. Following were the younger adolescents (9-13 years old), with findings divided into two groups: younger Latino adolescents (9-13 years old) and older Latino adolescents (14-19 years old). I conducted two focus groups, Actor Focus Group 1) and Non Actor Focus Group 2) without an actor. The actor's role is to bring up the most common experiences relevant to Latino group identity to get the discussion going. The focus groups without an actor are to support the data collected from Group 1 that these themes still need to be brought up without the actors' efforts. However, having the actor in the focus group makes the conversation more dense and breaks any awkwardness for younger adolescents.

In general, Democratic practices were a significant theme from both groups, and how both direct and indirect practices are vital in shaping hopes of future political participation. For the younger group (9-13 years old), many mentioned the Dual Language program, where they learn Spanish and English and are fluent in both languages. The Dual Language (DL) Program has been widely seen as a significantly efficient model for educating students with limited English proficiency. Many also mentioned that the DL program had created a strong camaraderie amongst each dual language cohort that remains the same from kindergarten to 12th grade, emphasizing how much they find security in a community and peers who share so much with each other. Younger Latino adolescents expressed more indirect democratic practices, including voting on who does a job best, selecting class jobs, what game to play on a rainy day schedule, what movie to watch, what book to read, what food they should bring during a party, etc.
Older Latino Adolescents (14-19 years old) talked about World history, US history, government, and economics classes. In this district, Chicago Literature and Chicano Language were courses vital in creating classroom discourse about political participation and political participation as a Latino. Findings show that learning the history of Mexican American political activism, such as the Zoot Suit Riot and the Chicano movement, makes teen adolescents proud of their culture. More direct democratic practices are mentioned, with participants now aware of more minor instances, including following classroom policies, doing homework, taking statistical courses, conducting surveys, and following homework policies. The student council was also widely brought up as early political participation, such as hearing the different pledges that candidates make to improve the school community, voting for who they think is the best representatives, and then voting for school representatives for student council that hold similar titles to political representatives in our democratic government (president, vice president, treasurer, etc.) To support my qualitative findings, I used a longitudinal survey of adolescents to evaluate three measures of familial influence on political participation: immigration status, household number, and socioeconomic status.

Author

• Olivia Cecilia Real, University of California, Los Angeles