Date of Award

January 2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

First Advisor

Sarah Edwards

Second Advisor

Cindy Juntunen

Abstract

College students of Color face unique challenges and barriers in college settings (Allen, 1992; Harper & Hurtado, 2007) and many of these students are not able to effectively integrate into the academic and social realms of college life. This leads many students of Color to ultimately drop out of college (Fischer, 2007).The present study utilized a sample of 228 Freshman college students of Color to examine the influence of college self-efficacy and experiences of racial micro-aggressions on factors related to the persistence in college of racial and ethnic minority students. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the direct and indirect relationships between racial microaggression experiences, college self-efficacy, college social integration, college academic integration, and persistence attitudes. Three measures were utilized to assess the variables in this study: the Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale (REMS), Persistence / Voluntary Dropout Scale (P/VDDS), and the College Self-Efficacy Inventory (CSEI). College self-efficacy directly influenced academic and social integration, and indirectly influenced persistence attitudes through academic integration. Social integration influenced college persistence indirectly through academic integration, and academic integration directly influenced social integration and persistence attitudes. Racial microaggressions were not found to influence any of the variables in the study. Next steps in future research, clinical implications, and study limitations are discussed.

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