Abstract:
Latina college students who begin their pathway at 2-year institutions represent the vast majority of Latinx college students who enter higher education (Fry, 2009; NCES, 2018) and more than half of all Latinx students initially enroll in community colleges. Latina transfer college students are also the most likely to drop out of college after transferring to 4-year institutions (Woodlief & Chavez, 2002). The focus of the extant research has been with Latinx individuals who begin their academic careers at 4-year university settings, rather than those who transfer from a community college. It remains unclear which academic and socio-cultural resources Latina transfer students' access, with what frequency, and the helpfulness of these resources in promoting academic persistence (Andrade, 2017). Additional research is needed to understand Latina transfer student’s socio-academic integration into campus environments.
This dissertation examined 1) which academic and socio-cultural resources Latina transfer students knew existed on their campuses, 2) how frequently students accessed specific types of academic and socio-cultural resources, 3) how helpful students experienced each type of academic and socio-cultural resource 4) and the relationship between frequency of academic and socio-cultural resource use and dimensions of academic persistence (academic integration, social integration, degree persistence, academic persistence) while controlling for relevant covariates (age, time in the US). Findings indicate that 1) more students reported knowing about more academic resources than socio-cultural resources on their respective college campuses regardless of class standing, 2) students reported engaging in socio-cultural resources more frequently, especially fourth and fifth year transfer students 3) participants overall reported socio-cultural resources as more helpful to their academic persistence, especially third and fourth years, whereas first/second/and fifth years all found academic resources more helpful 4) frequency of engagement in academic resources negatively related to levels of academic integration 5) frequency of engagement in academic resources was positively related to levels of social integration but not related to student’s levels of commitment and finally, 6) frequency of engagement in socio-cultural resources was positively and significantly related to academic integration, social integration, degree commitment, and institutional commitment.