How Can School-Based Helping Professionals Work More Effectively with Latinx High Schoolers?

ABSTRACT

Though nearly one-fourth of U.S. public school students are of Latinx descent, research regarding these students’ evolving needs and the ways in which high school-based helping professionals can work toward addressing them continues to lag. This scoping study bridges that gap by (1) systematically describing Latinx high school students’ concerns as reported in the peer-reviewed literature, and (2) mapping out recommendations for school-based helping professionals to support Latinx youth more effectively and intervene on their behalf. Toward this aim, we review peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2021 that include high school-based helping professionals in their sample population and provide implications or recommendations for working with Latinx students. Sixteen articles are identified and analyzed using a template analysis approach. We report their substantive focus, target professional group, and geographic location. Our analysis identifies 14 issues as being challenging and/or concerning for Latinx students and 14 recommendations for high school-based helping professionals to address them. Most recommendations identified are related to the use of culturally responsive practices. Identified concerns and recommendations are discussed in detail to spotlight solutions, future research directions, and practical implications for school-based helping professionals.

KEYWORDS:

• Latinx students
• high school
• helping professionals
• culturally responsive
• mental health
• scoping review

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge and thank the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities at the University of Georgia for providing initial support for the development of this project. Additionally, the authors thank Amber Prentiss at the University of Georgia’s University Libraries department for sharing her search syntax expertise, which assisted with developing this project’s data collection protocol. Christina Cotsakis Cordón with Clarke County Schools consulted on the paper’s original formulation.

Disclosure statement

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