All students, including those from ethnoracially diverse and from white backgrounds, benefit from supportive learning environments that accommodate adolescents’ multiple cultural and ethnic backgrounds, according to new University of California, Davis, research. These benefits span the academic, social and emotional realms.

Adolescents with high levels of culturally relevant support showed more emotional and behavioral academic engagement than adolescents from other groups with low levels of culturally relevant support. That is, youth with consistent and strong messages of culturally relevant support were the most engaged in school. In contrast, adolescents with the lowest levels of culturally relevant support had the lowest school engagement levels.

Researchers found, unexpectedly, that only among white youth, those with moderate to high levels of culturally relevant support had higher academic expectations, such as plans to pursue higher education, than those with the lowest levels of culturally relevant support. The overall study’s findings point to the benefits of culturally sensitive educational practices and policies that support youth and teach them about the history and traditions of multiple ethnoracial groups.

“These findings suggest that youth who receive lower levels of culturally relevant support, or who receive moderate teacher support but less support for cultural competency and awareness of social justice issues, might be less engaged in school,” said Maciel M. Hernández, UC Davis professor of human ecology and lead author of the study.

In the study, published Oct. 9 in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, researchers found through surveying students in 6^th and 9^th grade that adolescents with the lowest levels of culturally relevant support represented only about 17% of students.

“Importantly, these findings suggest that receiving culturally relevant support in school yields positive school experiences for all youth, at least concurrently. Adolescents have a lot to teach us about what supports their development in multicultural settings, and this is one example. We are now studying how these associations emerge over time,” Hernández said.

Most of the more than 700 enthnoracially diverse students surveyed in two intermediate and two high schools reported receiving some level of culturally relevant support, researchers found. The surveys were completed in 2019 and 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic changed the schooling landscape.

Students self-reported levels of teacher support and promotion of cultural competence. The questions the teens fielded on culturally relevant support in school ranged from what they had learned about diverse cultures to how much they felt supported by teachers. Students were also asked how much they enjoyed school, learning and activities, and how far they intended to go in school as indicators of academic functioning. The youth were asked to report on a scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) on a series of questions.

Students were also asked to evaluate their family’s socioeconomic status and their ethnoracial identity. Parents were surveyed separately about their status, being first-, second- or third-generation immigrants, for example. Students’ grade-point averages were also collected to account for academic performance.

Co-authors of the paper include Julia P. Carillo, of the Department of Human Ecology, UC Davis; Olga Kornienko, Marita Coker and Caroline Toth, of the Department of Psychology, George Mason University; Jennifer M. Figueroa, Karenina Paredes and Thao Ha of the Department of Psychology, Arizona State University; and Adam A. Rogers, School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.

This research was made possible by a grant from the Spencer Foundation.