Parent and peer social norms and youth's post-secondary attitudes: A latent class analysis

The present study explores whether college-going norms of parents and peers are intertwined or distinct in their contributions to college-going attitudes. Latent class analysis identified latent groups based on youth's social norms from parents and friends. Data was used from the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS:09), a nationally representative and longitudinal study of ninth grade American students (N = 10,663). Four classes were identified: universal college norms (53.57%, N = 5712), which included youth with high support from both parents and friends; parent college norms (12.71%, N = 1355), wherein youth's parents demonstrated high support while friends displayed low school engagement; friend college norms (27.53%, N = 2935), in which youth had highly engaged peers but limited parental support; and limited college norms (6.20%, N = 661), comprised of youth whose parents and friends displayed limited academic engagement. Findings indicate that parents and friends play separate roles in the development of college-going attitudes. •Most youth have both parents and friends with strong college-going norms.•Roughly 40% of youth have parents and friends with discordant college-going norms.•Parents and peers play separate roles in developing college-going attitudes.