Modeling Mexican Americans' educational expectations: Longitudinal effects of variables across adolescence

Using a national sample of Mexican Americans, the authors developed structural equation models of the effects of four eighth-grade latent variables on educational expectations assessed 6 years later Models for Mexican American women and men did not differ from one another The latent variable, parents' influence, had a strong positive effect on educational expectations at late adolescence. Parents' influence dominated the effects of the other latent independent variables, socioeconomic status, eighth-grade achievement test scores, and self-perceptions. The four eighth-grade latent variables explained 41 % of the variability in educational expectations at late adolescence. The findings reveal consistencies and inconsistencies with previous research findings and models.