Heterosexist harassment and social cognitive variables as predictors of sexual minority college students’ academic satisfaction and persistence intentions.

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This study examined social–cognitive and cultural predictors of academic satisfaction in a sample of 731 sexual minority college students. In addition to predictors drawn from the social–cognitive model of domain satisfaction (Lent, 2004), we included heterosexist harassment (perceived animosity toward nonheterosexuality) as a culture-specific predictor, with the potential to predict sexual minority students' academic satisfaction and desire to remain at their current college campuses. The findings indicated that the model fit the data well and accounted for substantial amounts of the variance in academic satisfaction and persistence intentions. It was also found to be invariant across subsamples of students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The culture-specific predictor, heterosexist harassment, was linked to academic satisfaction indirectly, largely through perceptions of lower environmental supports. Heterosexist harassment also produced a small direct, negative path to persistence intentions, apart from the social–cognitive predictors. We consider the implications of the findings for future research and for practical efforts to promote the academic well-being of sexual minority students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)