Date of Award
11-29-2024
Access Restriction
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctorate in Education
Department
Education
School or College
School of Education
First Advisor
William Perez
Second Advisor
Magaly Lavadenz
Third Advisor
Teresa Aceves
Abstract
Across the United States, public K-12 schools are more diverse today than ever before. In the last two decades, there has been a significant rise in the prevalence of mental health conditions among children and adolescents. What’s more, mental health has garnered increased public attention with concern whether the novel coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing or resulted in the onset of new mental health conditions. While scholars have analyzed mental health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities, there has been scarce investigation into English language acquisition status. Thus, the study described the difference among English Learner (EL), English Only (EO), Initial Fluent English Proficient (IFEP), Long Term English Learner (LTEL), and Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) middle school students’ mental health and determined if there was a relationship between mental health and academic achievement. The researcher describes the difference in mental health and the relationship to academic achievement to shed light on (in)equitable differences in the context of English language acquisition. A non-experimental research design was employed and utilized descriptive, inferential, and correlational statistics (Patten & Newhart, 2018; Trzesniewski et al., 2011). Archived, secondary data was obtained from one public, urban school district located in a city east of Los Angeles, California. Results indicated a statistically significant difference in the mean mental health scores of EL, EO, IFEP, LTEL, and RFEP middle school students and a statistically significant correlation among EO and RFEP middle school students’ mental health and academic achievement. Through the lens of the Ecological Systems Theory, recommendations for future research and practice are discussed.
Recommended Citation
McClearn, Lauren Judith, "Untangling Language Labeling and Mental Health: The Relationship between Middle School Students’ Language Acquisition Status and Self-Reported Mental Health" (2024). LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations. 1314.
https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/1314
