Date of Award

Spring 5-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Dr. Kelly Kennedy

Second Advisor

Dr. Stephany Cuevas

Third Advisor

Dr. Kris De Pedro

Abstract

Throughout history, Latine LGBTQ+ students have experienced discrimination, bullying, a lack of safety, and a lack of support in United States schools. In the unique political and social climate of California, the Latine LGBTQ+ student population have encountered a variety of supports (e.g., FAIR Act), successes (e.g., increased graduation rates), and challenges (e.g., Proposition 227, tracking) to their existence in schools. The limited prior research on Latine LGBTQ+ students has demonstrated that Latine LGBTQ+ students in positive school climates earn higher grades, attend school regularly, experience positive mental health outcomes, and feel a sense of connectedness to their schools. However, when Latine LGBTQ+ students have not had a positive school environment and have faced school victimization, they have earned lower grades, missed school more, reported depressive symptoms, and felt unsafe. In order to broaden understanding of the Latine LGBTQ+ high school student population in California, the current study utilized a QuantCrit theoretical lens and secondary quantitative analysis of the 2021-2022 California Healthy Kids Survey dataset. Through descriptive statistics, the study described the overall Latine LGBTQ+ sample and six subpopulations in terms of school supports/engagement, mental health outcomes, academic outcomes, and school victimization. Latine nonbinary and Latine transgender students reported meaningful differences from the overall Latine LGBTQ+ sample, such that they experienced lower school supports/engagement, negative mental health issues, negative academic outcomes, and higher school victimization. Through seven logistic regression models, school connectedness, violence victimization, and harassment based on gender were found to be the strongest predictors for various academic outcomes and mental health outcomes among Latine LGBTQ+ students. While few findings were counterintuitive, most reaffirmed and added to the current understanding of Latine LGBTQ+ students, providing implications for school supports/engagement, mental health outcomes, academic outcomes, and school victimization.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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