An Investigation of the Effects of Racial/Ethnic Microaggressions, Sociopolitical Development, and Protective Factors on Academic Persistence Intentions among Latina/o Students

dc.contributor.advisorMcWhirter, Ellenen_US
dc.contributor.authorMedina, Cynthiaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-10-10T23:20:52Z
dc.date.issued2013-10-10
dc.description.abstractAs the nation's largest and fastest growing marginalized ethnic group, Latina/os play an increasingly crucial role in the economic and social life of the nation, highlighting the need for education systems to re-evaluate and expand their efforts in supporting and retaining this growing population. A number of contextual factors have been identified that influence the college experience and academic persistence of Latina/o students, including campus racial climate, perceptions of university environment, cultural congruity, interpersonal racism, and structural racism. An emerging area of research is racial/ethnic microaggressions (i.e., subtle forms of racism). In the face of these challenges, many Latina/os learn to critically navigate and negotiate the cultural environment of college, drawing on cultural strengths as well as cultural knowledge and skills gained in overcoming previous structural barriers to education. The focus of the present study is on Latina/o students and factors that influence their academic persistence intentions. Structural equation modeling techniques were performed to test a hypothesized structural model of the mechanisms by which racial/ethnic microaggressions, protective factors (i.e., resilience, mentor support, social support from family and friends), and sociopolitical development (i.e., ethnic identity, critical consciousness) influence Latina/o students' intentions to persist in academia. The hypothesized structural model tested indicated a good fit to the data. Study results were consistent with several study hypotheses: (a) the hypothesized structural model provided a good fit to the data; (b) the proposed set of relationships between resilience, mentor support, social support from family and friends, critical consciousness, ethnic identity, and intentions to persist accounted for significant variance in the model; (c) perceptions of university environment was directly related to intentions to persist; (d) protective factors (resilience, mentor support, social support from friends and family), sociopolitical development (ethnic identity and critical consciousness), and perceptions of university environment fully mediated the relationship between racial/ethnic microaggressions and intentions to persist; (e) protective factors mediated the relationship between perceptions of university environment and intentions to persist. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.en_US
dc.description.embargo2015-10-10
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/13448
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregonen_US
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserved.en_US
dc.subjectAcademic persistenceen_US
dc.subjectEthnic identityen_US
dc.subjectHigher educationen_US
dc.subjectLatina/osen_US
dc.subjectRacial microaggressionsen_US
dc.subjectSociopolitical developmenten_US
dc.titleAn Investigation of the Effects of Racial/Ethnic Microaggressions, Sociopolitical Development, and Protective Factors on Academic Persistence Intentions among Latina/o Studentsen_US
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineDepartment of Counseling Psychology and Human Servicesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Oregonen_US
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.namePh.D.en_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Medina_oregon_0171A_10833.pdf
Size:
679.53 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format