La Familia y Los Amigos: Understanding How Social and Familial Capital Impact Latinx Engineering Students

This full research category paper examines the ways Latinx students' social networks are leveraged as capital to inform their engineering identity development, sense of belonging, and persistence beliefs. There is a dearth of literature discussing how Latinx students' capital is used in engineering coursework and how that capital, in turn, supports important affective and motivational measures. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to answer the following research question: How does Latinx students' social and familial capital used to support their coursework inform their sense of belonging, recognition, and persistence beliefs? Data for this study came from survey responses from 226 Latinx undergraduate engineering students. We found that Latinx students' recognition in engineering was fostered by the course-related advice and resources they received from their peers. Course-related advice from family members bolstered Latinx students' confidence to perform well in their courses. Utilizing family and school peers as resources to help with schoolwork subsequently promoted Latinx students' classroom belongingness. The expressive support received from family members, neighborhood friends, and school peers was also an influential form of capital supporting their sense of belonging and beliefs about persisting. Underscoring how families have helped their students throughout their engineering degree further contributes to the premise that minoritized students' families and communities are rich with capital that should be valued in engineering. We provide suggestions on how instructors can create a space for students to formally draw from the experiences of their family and friends to support their learning.