Mi mamá es una mujer poderosa y inspiradora: Latina mother’s influence on Latina undergraduates’ academic persistence

Abstract

We used the psychosociocultural framework to conceptualize, analyze, and narrate the perceptions of 10 Latina women about their mothers’ influence and role on their educational persistence in higher education. The Latina undergraduates were upper-division students who were of Mexican descent and sought educational success. To make meaning of the Latina women’s narratives, we implemented a multi-step content analysis of the qualitative data yielding five meta-themes: (1) Home Assumptions, (2) Para Honrar los Sacrificios de Ella, (3) Mujer Poderosa, (4) Tener Exito, and (5) New Story of What it Means to be Latina Women in Higher Education. The findings emphasized Latina mothers’ powerful role and salient influence on their daughter’s notion of themselves as Latina women in education. The Latina women shared how their mothers held expectations, provided support, made sacrifices for the family, desired excellence, and engaged at all costs with their daughters’ success in mind.

Keywords:

• Daughters
• mothers
• Latina college students
• academic persistence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Dueñas

Mary Dueñas is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Alberta M. Gloria

Alberta M. Gloria is a professor in the Department of Counseling Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jeanett Castellanos

Jeanett Castellanos is the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Teaching in the School of Social Science at the University of California, Irvine.

Sandra Leon

Sandra Leon was an undergraduate in the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine at the time of the study.