Work hope in a socially-classed world: The System-Justifying Beliefs in Rural Latinx Youth

The purpose of this study was to understand how and to what degree rural Latinx students’ hopes about their career, work, and future are related to their system-justifying beliefs. This study focused on both Latinx and White students living in rural meatpacking towns in the Midwestern United States (U.S.). Within this research, system-justifying beliefs refer to people’s beliefs that the U.S. in general is a just society (beliefs in a just America), that social stratification and hierarchy are inevitable, legitimate, or even desirable (beliefs about class inequality), and that the ability to move upward in the social class system is based on individual academic merits (beliefs in educational meritocracy). Work hope signifies how we view our future aspirations, and how we manage our lives in order to obtain these aspirations. Through this research, the following research question was addressed: How are system-justifying beliefs related to work hope among rural Latinx youth who are denied access to privileges because of their socioeconomically marginalized backgrounds?

To answer this research question, survey data were collected from 151 high school students (85 Latinx and 66 White) living in the rural Midwest and in close proximity to meatpacking factories. The dataset includes scales to assess students’ work hope and three types of system-justifying beliefs. The first scale, Beliefs in the United State as a Just Society, measures what students believe about the U.S. as a larger system (system-level justification). The second scale, the Contemporary Critical Consciousness Scale, measures the degree to which students justify the social class gaps that exist between marginalized groups and privileged groups in the social class system (group-level justification). The last scale, Beliefs in Educational Meritocracy, measures the personal beliefs that are formed, and the educational efforts that are made, in order to improve the students’ social class status (individual-level justification). By using these scales, the study examined how students’ system-justifying beliefs may play a role in the development of their work hope, and how the relationships differ between Latinx and White rural youth.

Results using hierarchical linear regression analyses showed several important findings. First, system-justifying beliefs played a significant role in the development of work hope among both Latinx and White youth after accounting for the influence of family social class. Second, there were several ways that the system-justifying beliefs were related to work hope among the Latinx and White youth. In the Latinx sample, higher levels of beliefs in educational meritocracy, as well as lower levels of beliefs about class inequality, were associated with higher levels of work hope. However, in the White sample, higher levels of beliefs about class inequality and beliefs in a just America were associated with higher levels of work hope. Findings from this study may help educators, psychologists, and counselors expand their awareness about how work hope is embedded in system-justifying beliefs, which is particularly relevant given the mounting concerns pertaining to economic inequality and social mobility in the U.S. Such awareness may help these professionals and students reconsider pervasive system-justifying messages (e.g., meritocratic ideology) that may unfairly benefit the development of work hope among traditionally privileged groups, while disadvantaging traditionally marginalized groups (e.g., students from Latinx immigrant working class families).