Systemic Racism: Perceptions, Stress, and Coping among African American College Students

Abstract

College attrition represents a serious and persistent problem for ethnic minority students. Although there has been a plethora of research examining retention rates, most have focused on difficulty paying for college and financial strain. Importantly, past studies suggest that minority stress in the form of discrimination and lack of support on campus represents an additional barrier for African American students at predominantly White four-year institutions. The current study furthers our understanding of the experience of African American students by focusing on a previously unstudied race-related stress: systemic racism. Furthermore, the current investigation focuses on mental and physical health outcomes among students, in addition to academic outcomes which have been traditionally studied. Finally, this study examines the role of support from kin, same race friends, and religiosity as potential buffers from the impact of systemic-racism related stress. A sample of 472 students with mean age of 20.65 (SD=1.53), of which 99 identified as Black/African American and 373 as White/European American or Caucasian was recruited from a large public university. The results indicate that African American students perceived higher levels of systemic-racism related stress than their European American counterparts. Among African American respondents, systemic-racism related stress was related to lower levels of academic engagement, after control for general and undergraduate stress. Among European American students higher levels of systemic-racism related stress were related to higher levels of academic engagement. The study also finds that having many same race college friends reduces racism-related stress among African American students, while high levels of kinship support are related to higher levels of racism-related stress. Ethnic identity and racial socialization buffered the negative impact of racism-related stress on health outcomes, but only at low levels of stress. Similarly, kinship support was related to better outcomes at low levels of stress, but had no positive impact on physical or mental health outcomes at high levels of racism-related stress. Finally, religious participation and spirituality were related to lower levels of mental and physical health functioning for college students. However, at high levels of racism-stress, students with high levels of religiosity reported better adjustment than students with low levels of religiosity. The results hold important implications for the mental and physical health functioning of ethnic minority college students.