Effects of School Belonging on Internalizing Symptom Trajectories Among Latinx Youth

Latinx and Latinx ELL youth are among the fastest growing student populations in the nation’s schools. Despite consistent efforts to address the achievement gap that exists between these youths and their non-Latinx and non-ELL counterparts, these youth continue to consistently underperform across academic areas. While most empirical work has focused on identifying the academic needs of these youth in an effort to address this underperformance, recent research has identified the unique social-emotional needs of these student populations. Using Growth Mixture Modeling (GMM), the current study explored trajectories of internalizing symptoms among two samples of Latinx and Latinx ELL students in an effort to develop a better understanding of the social-emotional well-being of these youths. Furthermore, the study explored the predictive ability of early school belonging on trajectory placement as well as the ability of these trajectories to predict future victimization. Consistent with results from previous studies working with broad student samples, results from the current study describe the presence of various internalizing problem trajectories among Latinx and Latinx ELL youth. Trends observed were consistent with those found in other literature exploring the development of internalizing problems among children and adolescents. School belonging was identified as being a significant predictor of internalizing symptom trajectory placement. Youth reporting elevated levels of school belonging were more likely to be placed in trajectories characterized by mild or decreasing levels of internalizing problems over time. Similarly, trajectories significantly identified youth who self-reported elevated levels of overt and relational victimization. Namely, youth belonging to trajectories characterized by increasing or consistently elevated levels of internalizing problems were more likely to report experiencing elevated levels of victimization. Implications for school based mental health services are discussed including approaches to increase school belonging among Latinx youth