The results indicated that Latino students with greater family and psychological resources demonstrated greater academic achievement. Specifically, ethnic identity and parental support served as protective factors that muted the potentially negative effects of low socioeconomic status on academic achievement. Thus, Latino students who reported having high levels of ethnic identity and parental support had higher academic achievement despite their low socioeconomic status. The results also revealed that Latino college students who reported high ethnic identities were more likely to make good use of ongoing parental supports to excel academically. Contrary to expectations, family interdependence did not serve as a buffer for the potentially negative effects of low socioeconomic status on academic achievement. Data for the study were gathered from 123 (84 females, 39 males) Latino college students who were recruited from a required course as they entered their freshmen year at an urban university in southern California. Participants completed surveys outside of class time that measured their ethnicity and other sociodemograhic information, parental support of education, family interdependence, and ethnic identity. Data were analyzed using multilevel random coefficient modeling (also referred to as hierarchical linear modeling). Future research should focus on the creation of a richer measure for ethnic minority conceptions of family and family support. Tables, figures, footnotes, references