This dissertation investigates the ethnic labor market activities of the Latina/os. This study is important since regardless of their historical and increasing presence in the U.S., Latinos continue to find themselves disproportionately at the bottom of the social hierarchy (Saenz, Morales, and Ayala 2004). Furthermore, due to their lack of access, a significant amount of the members of this group are turning to employment in an ethnic niche. While there is no consensus as to what exactly constitutes an ethnic niche, a distinct characteristic is the co-ethnic nature of the work environments. Special focus is placed on how immigration status/nativity, gender, nativity, and skin color influences job search activities and wage differentials in the ethnic niche. While these factors have been found to impact the mainstream labor market, our knowledge of how these factors operate in a work environment with a dominant presence of co-ethnics is ambiguous. Utilizing data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MCSUI), results show that Latina/os workers in co-ethnic niches receive fewer economic rewards than their ethnic counterparts in the general labor market. Furthermore, within the Latina/o population dark-skinned individuals are more likely to be employed in ethnic niches while the lighter-skinned are more likely to be employed in the general labor market. When examining the stratification factors of immigration/nativity status, gender, and skin color, in addition to social networks, findings show that these stratification factors operate in a similar fashion in ethnic niches as they do in more mainstream labor markets. Thus these findings question the presumably protective work environment of ethnic niches.

This dissertation investigates the ethnic labor market activities of the Latina/os. This study is important since regardless of their historical and increasing presence in the U.S., Latinos continue to find themselves disproportionately at the bottom of the social hierarchy (Saenz, Morales, and Ayala 2004). Furthermore, due to their lack of access, a significant amount of the members of this group are turning to employment in an ethnic niche. While there is no consensus as to what exactly constitutes an ethnic niche, a distinct characteristic is the co-ethnic nature of the work environments. Special focus is placed on how immigration status/nativity, gender, nativity, and skin color influences job search activities and wage differentials in the ethnic niche. While these factors have been found to impact the mainstream labor market, our knowledge of how these factors operate in a work environment with a dominant presence of co-ethnics is ambiguous. Utilizing data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MCSUI), results show that Latina/os workers in co-ethnic niches receive fewer economic rewards than their ethnic counterparts in the general labor market. Furthermore, within the Latina/o population dark-skinned individuals are more likely to be employed in ethnic niches while the lighter-skinned are more likely to be employed in the general labor market. When examining the stratification factors of immigration/nativity status, gender, and skin color, in addition to social networks, findings show that these stratification factors operate in a similar fashion in ethnic niches as they do in more mainstream labor markets. Thus these findings question the presumably protective work environment of ethnic niches.

The purpose of this study was to explore mechanisms through which high school students experience and cope with perceived discrimination and how discrimination and coping mechanisms relate to psychological distress and school engagement. Framed within transactional stress and coping and sociopolitical development theories, I tested a multiple mediation model with an ethnically diverse sample of public high school students (N = 979) and a subsample of Latina/o students (n = 433) to examine the mediating effects of three coping mechanisms (perceived social support, ethnic identity, and critical consciousness) on the relationship between perceived discrimination and the outcomes of psychological distress and school engagement. Additionally, psychological distress was examined as a mediator in the link between perceived discrimination and school engagement. Measurement and structural models were tested and demonstrated an adequate fit to the data. The hypothesized structural model accounts for 54% of the variance in school engagement and 31.2% of the variance in psychological distress in the full sample. The same model accounts for 63.4% of the variance in school engagement and 26.7% of the variance in psychological distress in the Latina/o subsample. A bootstrap analysis revealed that critical consciousness and perceived social support mediate the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological distress in the full sample. Further, critical consciousness, ethnic identity, perceived social support, and psychological distress mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination and school engagement. A bootstrap analysis in the Latina/o subsample indicated that critical consciousness and psychological distress mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination and school engagement. While there are associated risks, the results highlight critical consciousness development as a protective racism-related coping mechanism for ethnically diverse adolescents and Latina/o youth in particular. Strengths, limitations, and implications of the study are discussed.

abstract: This study addresses conflicting findings regarding gender differences in the moderating role of ethnic private regard in the longitudinal association between school ethnic discrimination and educational values among Latina/o early adolescents. Participants included 689 Latina/o early adolescents in middle school (Mage = 12.06, SD = .98 at Time 1; Mage = 12.66, SD = 1.00 at Time 2). Two waves of data were collected approximately eight months apart. Ethnic private regard moderated the association between school ethnic discrimination at time 1 and educational values at time 2 only among Latino male early adolescents, such that the negative association between school ethnic discrimination and educational values existed only for males with high ethnic private regard. Implications highlight the need to enhance teachers’ cultural competency in working with Latino male students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Counseling Psychology 2016