The Relationships of Peer Norms, Ethnic Identity, and Peer Support to School Engagement in Urban Youth

Investigating variables associated with the school success and educational resilience of urban youth of color should be a high priority because of the persistent achievement gap in the United States. The current study examined individual and peer factors' relation to the school engagement of 132 seventh- and eighthgrade students from a diverse public elementary school in a large Midwestern city. The participants ranged in age from 12 to 15 years old. In this study, positive peer norms, peer support, and positive ethnic identification were hypothesized to intervene in the relationship between negative peer norms and low school engagement. The findings suggest that both positive peer norms and positive ethnic identity may serve as significant protective factors for urban youth of color.