<b>Educational and Cultural Threads: Disentangling School and Familial Factors in STEM Among Latine Students</b>

<p dir="ltr">The Latine population in the United States has been rapidly increasing over the last two decades and has grown from 50 million in 2010 to 62 million in 2020 (Funk & Lopez, 2022). Latines also have the second-highest rate of enrollment in K-12 schools, and at the same time, they have the highest dropout rate (7.9%), compared to Black (5.7%) and white (4.3%) students (NCES, 2024a, 2024b). Some factors that may contribute to the high dropout rates include various forms of inequality, such as low-resource schools, poverty, racism, and discrimination (Galindo, 2021; Martinez et al., 2004; Raffaelli et al., 2016). For Latine students, education is an important component of economic and social mobility (Schmalzbauer & Rodriguez, 2023). Thus, education can also be supported by protective factors, such as cultural wealth (e.g., Community Cultural Wealth and Funds of Knowledge), which can enhance the success of Latine students in school (González et al., 2005; Yosso, 2005). Given the underrepresentation of Latine individuals in STEM fields (Funk & Parker, 2018) and the demand for these jobs (Kikuchi, 2024), understanding how to foster STEM careers for students can help inform strategies to support their upward mobility earlier in their development. The high percentage of Latine students enrolling in K-12 schools and the underrepresentation of Latine students in STEM, provides an opportunity to examine risk and protective factors to understand how to support STEM outcomes. For example, various works focusing on STEM note the importance considering factors like self-efficacy, identity, empowerment, and a sense of belonging in mathematics in the likelihood of pursuing a STEM major or career among Latine students (Sahin et al., 2017). Similarly, other work has indicated the importance of considering school and family-related factors to help promote Latine achievement in STEM careers (Waxman et al., 2020). In both these instances, Latine identity and cultural values could be leveraged as an opportunity to enhance representation and success in STEM for Latine education.</p><p dir="ltr">In this dissertation, two studies investigated STEM outcomes among Latine students. First, Study 1 examined concepts of <i>Mathematical Identity</i>, defined as perceptions of how students see themselves as doers of math (Cribbs et al., 2015); <i>Mathematics in the Environment</i>, defined as general math experiences in the environment such as playground, home, neighborhood, and world; and <i>Sense of Belonging in Mathematics</i>, defined as feeling accepted and valued in math (Good et al., 2012; Goodenow, 1993). Specifically, Study 1 examined whether Mathematical Identity, Mathematics in the Environment, and Sense of Belonging in Mathematics were related to mathematical performance in 3rd- to 5th-grade Latine students. Second, Study 2 examined School Discrimination and School Support in relation to high school seniors' mathematical and science interests and performance cross-sectionally, and whether Familism values and Familial Generation Status moderated the associations. Therefore, the current study employed strength-based perspectives, focusing on cultural assets within the Latine community, to guide the studies. Study 1 was guided by the Community Cultural Wealth and Funds of Knowledge, whereas Study 2 was guided by the Integrative Model for the Study of Developmental Competencies in Minority Children.</p><p><br></p>