Collectivistic coping responses to racial microaggressions associated with Latina/o college persistence attitudes.


Despite narrowing the gap in enrollment and achieving a record number of degrees conferred on Latina/o college students, Latina/o young adults complete their bachelor’s degree at rates lower than all other major racial/ethnic groups. Research has demonstrated the harmful impact of microaggressions on the educational aspirations, withdrawal behavior, and academic persistence decisions of Latina/o students. The purposes of the present study were to examine (a) the association between racial microaggressions and college persistence attitudes, (b) the associations between persistence attitudes and two collectivistic coping responses (i.e., forbearance and social support seeking) to microaggressive stress, and (c) the interactions between coping styles and microaggressions. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze online questionnaire data from 681 Latina/o undergraduates. Findings indicated less racial microaggressions, β = −.24, p < .001, more social support seeking, β = .23, p < .001, and less forbearance coping, β = âˆ'.09, p = .03, were each independently associated with higher persistence attitudes. A statistically significant interaction, B = .74, p = .04, indicated racial microaggressions had a stronger negative association with persistence attitudes when forbearance coping was low than when it was high. Findings and implications are discussed to inform efforts to build resiliency and agency against this insidious form of racism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)