Special tasks of commuter students

Commuter students have special adjustment problems that are quite different from those of students in a residential college. Most commuter students come from families who have never before sent a family member to college, and these students must bridge the gap between the family- and community-oriented life they have always known and the university setting in which they now function. Specifically, they must cope with such maturational tasks as dealing with authority, managing impulses, maintaining self-esteem, and establishing a suitable identity. The author emphasizes that it is the job of counselors to assist these students by providing an understanding of their conflicts, supporting them in their difficulties, and modifying institutional practices where it is deemed necessary.     

Differences in Black and White American College Students�� Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men

Differences in attitudes toward lesbians and gay men (ATLGM) held by Black and White Americans have rarely been studied systematically despite anecdotal evidence suggesting that Black Americans may be less accepting of lesbians and gay men than are White Americans. We tested the hypothesis that Black American??s ATLGM would be less positive than White Americans?? using data collected from 60 Black (36 female, 24 male) and 62 White (25 female, 37 male) students from a public university in the Midwestern United Sates. We found that Black students held generally neutral ATLGM whereas White students?? attitudes were slightly positive. This difference was mediated by racial group differences in right-wing authoritarianism.     

The role of race and teachers’ cultural awareness in predicting low-income,Black and Hispanic students’ perceptions of educational attainment

Demographic shifts in the United States have resulted in similar demographic shifts between K-12 teachers and their students, resulting in important implications for the educational outcomes of traditionally marginalized students and educators’ cultural awareness required in teaching diverse classrooms. Using data from the Three-City Teacher Study, this study examined students’ (N = 207; 55 % female; 52 % non-Hispanic Black, 48 % non-White Hispanic; mean age = 16.70 years, SD = 1.67) and teachers’ (N = 202; 71.5 % female; 64.3 % white; mean years of experience = 13.80 years, SD = 10.83) agreement on the potential educational attainment of the student. Specifically, we explored the probability that teachers had lower, matched, or higher perceptions of educational attainment compared to their low-income Black and Hispanic students’ perceptions of attainment while accounting for teachers’ and students’ reports of school connectedness, teachers’ cultural awareness, and moderating effects of students’ race. Results from multinomial logistic regressions found that teachers were more likely to have lower perceptions of educational attainment for Hispanic students compared to Black students. Teachers were also more likely to have lower perceptions when they perceived students to have low school connectedness. For Black students, teachers’ cultural awareness attenuated this association; that is, teachers were more likely to have higher perceptions of educational attainment for Black students when they reported higher cultural awareness. The reverse was true for Hispanic students. These results enhance our understanding of how teacher and student perceptions shape expectations of educational attainment with implications for teacher education and professional development domestically and internationally.     

Do psychosocial and study skill factors predict college outcomes? Comment on Robbins et al. (2004)

Evidence is cited in support of the claim that the results of the meta-analyses conducted by S. B. Robbins et al. (2004) are not generalizable to either baccalaureate-granting commuter institutions or certain demographically identified subgroups of students.     

Perceived Academic Competence and Overall Job Evaluations: Students' Evaluations of African American and European American Professors

Despite the fact that few people appear to endorse negative stereotypes of Blacks, such stereotypes are widely disseminated in our culture. Consequently, such stereotypes can have pervasive consequences on one's impressions of African Americans, even by low-prejudice Whites and by Blacks themselves. Thus, we predicted that student judgments of intellectual competence would be more important when students were making global performance evaluations of Black faculty than of White faculty. Furthermore, to the extent that intellectual competence is more salient in the judgment of Black faculty, such judgments should be essentially the same among Black and White students, and for low- and high-prejudice students. For the most part, analyses of instructor evaluations at a major American university supported these expectations.     

Deconfounding the Effects of Local Element Spatial Heterogeneity and Sparsity on Processing Dominance

Black and White American college students were compared to determine how daily hassles, coping strategies, and social support related to depression. Although the mean intensity of hassles did not differ, Black students reported a higher frequency of hassles. Cumulative severity of hassles, defined in terms of both intensity and frequency was therefore higher for Black students. White students perceived more support from friends than from family, but the opposite held for Black students. Mean scores on type of coping (active problem solving, seeking social support, or avoidance) were similar, as were the reported levels of depression. Hierarchical multiple regression showed that the severity of hassles was directly related to depression for both groups. Race did not interact with any index of social support, except perceived family support, which was related to lower depression among Black students. There was no support for the notion that social support serves as a buffer against depression.     

The relationship of daily hassles, social support, and coping to depression in black and white students

Black and White American college students were compared to determine how daily hassles, coping strategies, and social support related to depression. Although the mean intensity of hassles did not differ, Black students reported a higher frequency of hassles. Cumulative severity of hassles, defined in terms of both intensity and frequency was therefore higher for Black students. White students perceived more support from friends than from family, but the opposite held for Black students. Mean scores on type of coping (active problem solving, seeking social support, or avoidance) were similar, as were the reported levels of depression. Hierarchical multiple regression showed that the severity of hassles was directly related to depression for both groups. Race did not interact with any index of social support, except perceived family support, which was related to lower depression among Black students. There was no support for the notion that social support serves as a buffer against depression.     

the needs of women returning to school

Many women who have experienced an extended interruption in their formal education find that their decision to return to school is both serious and significant. This article describes the special needs of women returning to school and analyzes these needs on both psychological and practical levels. The author offers suggestions about how colleges in general and student personnel workers in particular might help meet these needs, and she highlights programs and practices developed at one college. The discussion is based primarily on the experiences of women who are regular matriculated day session students at an urban commuter college. Observations are drawn from interviews, group discussions, and a questionnaire.     

A question of belonging: race, social fit, and achievement

Stigmatization can give rise to belonging uncertainty. In this state, people are sensitive to information diagnostic of the quality of their social connections. Two experiments tested how belonging uncertainty undermines the motivation and achievement of people whose group is negatively characterized in academic settings. In Experiment 1, students were led to believe that they might have few friends in an intellectual domain. Whereas White students were unaffected, Black students (stigmatized in academics) displayed a drop in their sense of belonging and potential. In Experiment 2, an intervention that mitigated doubts about social belonging in college raised the academic achievement (e.g., college grades) of Black students but not of White students. Implications for theories of achievement motivation and intervention are discussed.     

Racial Identity Development Among Gifted Black Students: Counseling Issues and Concerns

A review of the literature suggests that a paucity of information exists regarding how culture-specific issues such as being both Black and gifted influence the psychological needs and personality development of gifted Black students. Stellar attempts, however, are currently underway to develop theories and perspectives of racial identity development among Black students. These theories and perspectives are discussed in an attempt to understand and address the psychological and social needs of gifted Black students.     

Failure to warn: How student race affects warnings of potential academic difficulty

In two studies, we document “failure to warn”—a reduced likelihood of warning Black students against potential academic difficulty compared to White students. In both studies, participants placed in the role of academic advisors saw a highly challenging academic course plan, attributed to either a Black or a White student, and gave Black students less warning about the potential negative consequences of taking on the proposed plan. Study 1 (N = 172) demonstrates this effect using undergraduate peer academic advisors, and Study 2 (N = 58) provides evidence that this effect is moderated by Internal Motivation to Respond Without Prejudice (Plant & Devine, 1998), suggesting that this effect is driven by the fear that discouraging an ambitious Black student might reflect prejudice. This well-intentioned concern can have the ironic consequence of leading the recipients of this advice into academic difficulties.     

Coping attitudes, sources, and practices among Black and Latino college students

We investigated 130 Black and Latino college students regarding their concerns, attitudes toward professional counseling, sources of support, and coping activities. We found that the Black and Latino cultural emphasis on interdependence influenced attitudes toward using professional resources such as a counselor. We also found a significant two-way interaction between gender and race for attitudes toward professional counseling: Black males had less favorable attitudes in comparison to Black females, while Latino males had more favorable attitudes than did Latino females. Both Black and Latino college students had favorable attitudes toward informal support networks. Differences between Black and Latino college students were found for reported concerns and coping sources. Implications for counseling theory, practice, and research are discussed.     

Peer crowds in a commuter college sample: the relation between self-reported alcohol use and perceived peer crowd norms

The author studied peer crowds on a college commuter campus and examined the relation between self-reported alcohol use and perceived peer crowd norms for alcohol use. College students (N = 271) completed questionnaires to determine their peer crowd affiliation and frequency and amount of alcohol use. The author assessed perceived peer-crowd affiliation norms with a series of vignettes describing the typical student that would be associated with each peer crowd. Analyses revealed identifiable peer crowds among college students that represent different patterns of alcohol use both in self-reported alcohol use among students in a peer crowd and in the perceived norms for alcohol use in each peer crowd. The author described the relation between self-reported use and the perceived use by members of one's peer crowd.     

When your friends matter: The effect of White students' racial friendship networks on meta-perceptions and perceived identity contingencies

Prior research suggests that people expect to be perceived negatively in interracial interactions but positively in intraracial interactions. The present research demonstrates that an interaction partner's racial network of friends can moderate these expectations in interracial interactions but not intraracial interactions. Across two experiments, we led Black and White college students to believe they would have conversation with a White student on campus. The results revealed that Black students expected to be perceived more positively and anticipated a less challenging conversation, when their interaction partner had a racially diverse network of friends compared to a racially homogeneous network of friends. In contrast, White students expected to be perceived positively and anticipated few challenges in the conversation, regardless of their interaction partner's racial network of friends. The implications of racial friendship diversity are discussed.     

An exploratory examination of the associations among racial and ethnic discrimination, racial climate, and trauma-related symptoms in a college student population

In this study, we examined the association among perceptions of racial and/or ethnic discrimination, racial climate, and trauma-related symptoms among 289 racially diverse college undergraduates. Study measures included the Perceived Stress Scale, the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version, and the Racial Climate Scale. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that Asian and Black students reported more frequent experiences of discrimination than did White students. Additionally, the MANOVA indicated that Black students perceived the campus racial climate as being more negative than did White and Asian students. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that when controlling for generic life stress, perceptions of discrimination contributed an additional 10% of variance in trauma-related symptoms for Black students, and racial climate contributed an additional 7% of variance in trauma symptoms for Asian students.     

Construct validity of a measure of acculturative stress in African Americans

The properties of the main measure of acculturative stress have not been systematically examined. The authors conducted a study of the construct validity of the Social, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale (A. M. Padilla, Y. Wagatsuma, & K. J. Lindholm, 1985) in a sample of 248 African American university students (156 of whom attended a historically Black college). After controlling for general life stress, the authors found that the relations of acculturative stress to depressive and anxious (but not suicidal) symptoms remained. Also, African American students at a historically Black college reported less acculturative stress than African American students at a large state university. These findings clarify the nature of a key construct and measure of acculturative stress.     

Assessing the Learning Processes of Black South African Students

Data based on responses of 126 male and 201 female 14- and 15-year-old Black South African secondary school students showed the Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ; Biggs, 1987) to be fairly reliable and factorially valid. Comparison with the LPQ means for like-aged students from Australia and Hong Kong called into question the common assertion that Black South African students are more prone to use superficial learning processes than are Western students. In particular, the South African responses to the LPQ indicated that they were less shallow and more oriented toward achievement in their approach to learning than the Australian students were.     

A multilevel model of educational expectations of secondary school students in the United States

Using the Educational Longitudinal Survey of 2002, we investigate variation in factors that contribute to Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White students’ educational expectations. Separate multilevel models demonstrate group variation in student and school-level influences. Academic and school factors explained the most variation in White students’ expectations. School characteristics were least predictive of Black student expectations. For Hispanic students, the overall influence of family socioeconomic status (SES) was explained by school level SES. These results support research on student-level predictors of expectations and present new evidence of school-level predictors. The impact of academic track perceptions on expectations is established, as are the effects of certain experiences and school contexts, especially sports participation and Catholic/private school attendance. A model comparing all four groups supported the separate group models and also revealed that student-level factors have a weaker influence on Asians and high crime neighborhoods inflate the expectations of Hispanics but not similarly situated Black students.     

Stereotypical attitudes amongst black students at a rural historically black South African university

This study investigated stereotypical attitudes towards race amongst Black students (N=274) attending a historically Black South African university (females=62%; mean age of 22.15 years; SD=3.00 years). Data on group stereotyping by race were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The data were analysed for themes using discourse analysis. The findings indicated that Black students from a rural background stereotyped those from urban centres as lacking in African culture and being overly westernised. Conversely, rural Blacks from urban settings stereotyped those from rural areas as respectful, cultured and materially poor. Regardless of geographical origin, the Black students perceived English-speaking Whites as competent and friendly, while Afrikaans-speaking Whites were stereotyped as racist, aggressive and hardworking. The Black students perceived Indian South Africans as unethical and deceitful whilst Coloureds were noted to lack culture and to be aggressive. Findings suggest stereotypical racist language or discourse to be persistent among a student population with historical disadvantage.     

Relationship Between Race and Attitudes Toward Black Men

This article presents an empirical method for assessing attitudes toward Black men. The findings document that race is a significant factor in determining how Black men are perceived by Black and White college students.