Impact of Acculturation on Math Achievement in Community College Students

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dc.contributor.advisorCirino, Paul T.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberBick, Johanna R.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMedina, Luis D.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMcKinney, Lyle
dc.creatorHalverson, Kelly Kathryn
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-2787-6796
dc.date.accessioned2022-12-31T19:19:27Z
dc.date.available2022-12-31T19:19:27Z
dc.date.createdAugust 2022
dc.date.issued2022-06-28
dc.date.updated2022-12-31T19:19:28Z
dc.description.abstractWe investigated the potential moderating role of cultural adoption and cultural maintenance on the WM-math relation in a diverse group of CC students (n = 94). We expected that higher levels of adoption and maintenance would decrease WM load (via cognitive load) and aid math performance. At higher levels of acculturation, the WM-math relation was hypothesized approximate meta-analytic findings. Alternatively, at low levels of acculturation, the WM-math correlation was anticipated to be attenuated due to the added variability in culture and negative impact low acculturation levels have on WM, by increasing cognitive load. Within our sample (N = 94), WM-math correlations averaged r = .38 (similar to prior work), but acculturation did not significantly relate to math performance. Neither cultural adoption (computations: F=1.68, p =.199; word problems: F=.42, p =.521) nor cultural maintenance (computations: F=.83, p = .364; word problems: F=.36, p = .550) moderated the WM-math relations. In this context, developing individualized interventions would not appear to be an efficient use of resources. Instead, institutions (e.g., schools, city/federal government) may benefit from redoubling their efforts in providing academic and non-academic resources and supports to provide a more equitable educational experience to all students and offer the best possibility at future success. Post-hoc analyses, however, revealed that the cultural adoption-math relationship varied across different levels of vocabulary and math abilities, although not in the direction anticipated. Findings suggest complex relationships between WM, acculturation, and math such that acculturation does impact math performance when either vocabulary or math abilities are strong. This suggests additional individual and/or population characteristics should be explored more thoroughly (SES, discrimination, culture of origin) to further elucidate these complex relations.
dc.description.departmentPsychology, Department of
dc.format.digitalOriginborn digital
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10657/13209
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).
dc.subjectCulture
dc.subjectAchievement
dc.titleImpact of Acculturation on Math Achievement in Community College Students
dc.type.dcmiText
dc.type.genreThesis
thesis.degree.collegeCollege of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
thesis.degree.departmentPsychology, Department of
thesis.degree.disciplinePsychology
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Houston
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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