Exploring Parental Factors, Adjustment, and Academic Achievement Among White and Hispanic College Students

The purpose of this study was to examine whether college adjustment mediated the relationship between parental factors, such as parental attachment, parental education, and parental expectations, and academic achievement among White and Hispanic first-year college students. We found that adjustment mediated the relationship between parental factors—quality of the parental relationship and parental education—and GPA for White students. However, none of the parental factors explained GPA for Hispanic students. These findings support previous research asserting that correlates of academic achievement might vary across ethnic groups.