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Wendy de los Reyes

The Role of Mentors in the Civic/Political Engagement of I mmigrant-Origin Latinx Youth​

 PROJECT OVERVIEW 

Civic/political engagement has the potential to encompass a broad range of behaviors, but these conceptualizations also need to be understood within the context of Latinx immigrant-origin youth. This group of youth must uniquely decipher their place within the U.S. civic context, encompassing their hyphenated multi-national identities and potential familial obligations, which may differ drastically from the experiences of the non-immigrant, White, middle-class American young adults typically captured. Because the context of Latinx immigrant-origin youth may make some forms of civic/political engagement more accessible than others, it is important for them, who best understand their context, to set their own definitions of the types of individual and collective behaviors that can transform systems of inequality. This project includes portions of a two-phase project with 

MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership. Phase one is the qualitative phase and phase two, a quantitative measurement development study of approximately 500 participants, was directly informed by the findings of phase one. FINAL REPORT 0 3 // NOVEMBER 2023 In collaboration with MENTOR, this community based research project had the following goals: 

1. Complete interviews with 20-30 total participants.

2. Analyze qualitative interviews using a constructivist grounded theory approach to understand the role of mentors in the civic/political engagement of Latinx immigrant-origin youth. This will be done using Dedoose, an online qualitative analysis software.

 3. Receive feedback from a youth advisory board of immigrant-origin Latinx youth throughout the analysis process.

 4. Share findings with our community partner, MENTOR, in a qualitative report. Lay the groundwork for the development of a quantitative measure.

 5.     This mixed-method study has the potential to teach the broader mentoring field about how adult mentors can shape and contribute to the efforts of marginalized young people to affect change in their communities and beyond. It provides broad insight that contributes to recent work around critical mentoring and other social justice-oriented work at MENTOR, while also providing specific information for practitioners working with Latinx populations. 

GOALS ACHIEVED IN 2023 DURING THE DURATION OF THE FELLOWSHIP,

I ACHIEVED THE FOLLOWING GOALS: 

I conducted nine interviews, reaching a total of 23 interviews (14 interviews were conducted in the Fall, prior to the start of the fellowship). I performed all administrative duties related to data collection, such as scheduling email and text reminders, sending participant gift cards after interview completion, submitting invoices for MENTOR for reimbursement, uploading audio recordings to an AI transcription service (Temi) and checking transcriptions for any potential errors. During winter, spring, and summer, I worked with my research assistants to refine our codebook, meeting biweekly to discuss coding agreements and disagreements, and to reach consensus. 

 I established a youth research advisory board to collaborate in interpreting our research findings and develop tools for phase two of the project. During spring, I met with each new and existing member individually to discuss expectations and answer questions. Our meetings took place in June and August, and we have a third meeting scheduled for October. Our fourth and final meeting will likely take place in November or December. I began to take the following steps to share our findings: Together with my research assistants, we presented a poster at the DePaul Psych Night, the annual conference of the Midwestern Psychological Association, and the annual conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence. Based on the data collected and analyzed during this fellowship, we submitted two publications to academic journals to share our findings with the research community, and plan to submit at least one or two more in the next few months. I started developing a measure of youth perceptions of how adults support their sociopolitical development, which is informed by qualitative phase and my work with the youth advisory board. I brainstormed potential phrases with my research assistants and the youth advisory board.

CHALLENGES FACED IN THE PROJECT 

Recruiting certain demographics (e.g., cis-gender men, nonbinary participants, first-generation Latinx immigrants) was difficult in this study. In spring and summer, I worked within my social network and a collaborator in Texas for a final attempt to diminish these aspects to expand the participants represented in the research study. Our efforts were moderately successful. I was able to add a cis-gender man and a participant who was a first-generation immigrant. Additionally, the start of the youth research advisory board was delayed by a quarter due to time limitations that I experienced while finishing my dissertation. However, our meetings over the last few months have been productive and built well upon each other. At first, I familiarized the group with the qualitative project and findings, obtaining feedback from them on the role of adults in youth civic/political engagement, and collaborated with them to develop a measure on youth perceptions of how adults support their sociopolitical development (informed by the qualitative findings and their experiences). 

PROJECT IMPACT ON SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL EQUITY ISSUES 

This project focused on one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations: Goal 10 – Reduced Inequalities. In the U.S., the rising income and wealth inequality are higher than almost any other developed country (The Congressional Budget Office, 2018). These large inequalities are particularly stark within certain racial and ethnic groups, often attributed to a long history of racist policies (Siripurapu, 2022). Thus, this project focused on understanding how Latinx immigrant-origin youth take individual and collective action to transform systems of inequality with the support of caring and supportive adults (i.e., mentors). Additionally, once the project is complete (phases 1 and 2), I will collaborate with my partners at MENTOR on a series of learning events designed to share findings from the study: 1) a webinar, 2) a blog post, 3) a workshop at the National Mentoring Summit. The goal is for these findings to not only benefit MENTOR but also the broader mentoring field. This project will inform the field on how adult mentors can shape and contribute to the efforts of marginalized young people to affect change in their communities and beyond. These findings provide a deeper contextual understanding for practitioners working with Latinx populations that are quite heterogeneous. The measure on youth perceptions of adult support in their sociopolitical development will also be a tool that practitioners can use to quickly assess which youth may have a greater need for an adult partner in their civic/political engagement, as well as potential growth in adult support.