School connectedness and valuing as predictors of high school completion and postsecondary attendance among Latino youth

•We conducted a longitudinal study using a nationally representative sample of Latino youth.•School connectedness and valuing had significant indirect effects on the educational outcomes via behavioral engagement.•Indirect effects were significantly different for Latino students as compared to other racial/ethnic groups.

This longitudinal study examined whether school connectedness and valuing were protective factors in contributing to positive educational outcomes (i.e., high school completion and postsecondary attendance) among a nationally representative sample of Latino youth. Participants were drawn from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and included 1,743 Latino youth. Results from structural equation modeling, testing direct and indirect effects, showed that there were significant, indirect effects from school connectedness and school valuing to high school completion and postsecondary attendance, which were mediated by Latino students' classroom behavioral engagement. The structural equation model accounted for approximately 35% of the variance in Latino students' high school completion rates (R2 = .347, p < .001) and 21% of the variance in their postsecondary attendance rates (R2 = .211, p < .001). Results from multiple group analyses indicated that school connectedness and valuing may be protective factors for Latino students as compared to students from other racial/ethnic backgrounds.