Doctoral Dissertation Research: Adolescent Experiences of Social Support in Educational Trajectories

This doctoral dissertation research project investigates how adolescents living with significant social challenges experience social support for their educational aspirations and future goals. In so doing, this project provides a greater understanding of supportive practices that guide adolescents toward who they could be, and kinds of the lives they hope to lead. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, this project broadens our scientific knowledge of Latino/a/x communities, youth educational trajectories, and the human capacity for hope in adverse conditions. Findings from this research project will also be shared with the communities in which this project takes place, to identify and enhance school policies and social support practices. Through the use of mixed methods for data collection, this project cross-culturally and ethnographically compares from multiple stakeholders 1) how adolescents experience social support within their social environment (home, school, community) and the intersubjective qualities that facilitate this experience for youth; and 2) the ways adolescents’ lived experiences of social support, or lack thereof, in their respective schools, homes, and local communities inform their hopes and orientations toward future possibilities and opportunities. The researcher employs person-centered interviews, participant observation, and adolescent versions of anxiety and depression screening scales. Data will be thematically coded and analyzed to examine how adolescent experiences of support inform educational motivation and aspirations for the future. In a time of increasing global inequities, findings from this project will provide a blueprint for improved scientific approaches toward the role of social support in studies of hope, and of the impress of structural violence on lived experience. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.