Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Sociology

Advisor

Juan Battle

Subject Categories

Educational Sociology | Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education

Keywords

High School Dropouts, Latinos, Race, Stratification

Abstract

According to the forecast of the US Census Bureau, Latinos are the largest, fastest-growing ethnic group within the United States today and will comprise the majority of the US labor force sometime during the mid-21st century. Yet today, the youth of this diverse segment of the population are plagued by alarmingly high high school dropout rates, about double that of African-Americans youth and triple that of white youth. This yawning disparity prompts the examination of the social conditions contributing to this social crisis. How do demographic, aspirational, school-level, and socioeconomic variables affect the decision that so many Latino youth make to drop out of high school?

Employing three waves from the Educational Longitudinal Study (2002, 2004 & 2006), this study seeks to add to the discussion of the causes of dropping out among Latinos by examining factors that influence high school persistence rates for a nationally representative sample of Latino youth.

This dissertation's theoretical framework combines Bourdieu and Passeron's theory of societal reproduction, labeling theory, and social motivation theory.

Variables from all three levels exerted some influence on dropout patterns among Latino youth. Attending a high school located in an urban center was especially significant in predicting the likelihood that a Latino in our sample would drop out of high school, despite the well-known personal costs.

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