The Role of Relationships
A large body of literature documents the positive relationship between students’ sense
of belonging at school and their academic outcomes. Establishing a sense
of safety and belonging is closely connected to having a network of supportive
relationships (Sanchez, Colon & Esparza, 2005; Garcia-Reid & Reid,
2005). A study by Ibanez et al. (2004) found that Latino adolescents were
motivated to achieve in school through supportive relationships both at home
and school. Demaray and Malecki (2002) found that, among at-risk Latino youth
at a large urban middle school, students with a higher perception of social
support adjusted more easily to school. The role of peers in fostering a
sense of belonging is highlighted in the work of Valenzuela (1999), who studied
group identity and peer interactions at a large urban high school in Houston,
and found that a particular friendship group (“Urban Youth from Monterrey”)
helped its members achieve academically through the enforcement of positive
academic norms and through access to resources such as one family’s
home computer.
The resources and personal support that individuals can access through their
relationships is referred to as social capital (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman,
1988) and has been studied in depth by Stanton-Salazar (1997, 2001), who
asserts that social capital can be acquired, but that low-income Latino youth
face a number of barriers in doing this. Stanton-Salazar and Dornbusch (1995)
highlight the importance of students connecting with teachers, guidance counselors,
college staff, and community members in order to get advice, support and
knowledge that might not be available at home, especially if there is no
prior history of college attendance in the family. Stanton-Salazar further
discusses the importance of students learning “help-seeking behavior” to
gain access to these key individuals.
Students can also access social capital through their peers. Gandara (1995) found that white, middle-class peers gave Latino students in her study resources and information, such as advice on curriculum choices. They also provided access to adult networks that might have otherwise been closed. A study of six racially diverse schools in California over three and a half years by Lewis-Charp, Yu, and Friedlaender (2004) determined that many low-income Latino students relied on white peers for connection to resource-rich networks. In both studies, the authors found that while these students gained valuable resources from white middle-class peers, they solidified their sense of ethnic identity through friendships with others from the same background. Putnam (2002) asserts that bridging capital, which comes from access to networks of people unlike oneself, and bonding capital, which connects a person to networks of like-minded individuals, are both critically important.
