Critical Consciousness and Intent to Persist Through College in DACA and U.S. Citizen Students: The Role of Immigration Status, Race, and Ethnicity

Objectives: We used the model of critical consciousness (CC; Freire, 1973) to examine college persistence in a sample of Hispanic Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) college students in contrast to Hispanic and non-Hispanic White U.S. citizens. To do this, we looked to social cognitive car...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cultural diversity & ethnic minority psychology 2018-10, Vol.24 (4), p.564-575
Main Authors: Cadenas, Germán A., Bernstein, Bianca L., Tracey, Terence J. G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citizenship
College Students
Consciousness
Cultural Competency
Cultural Diversity
Emigration and Immigration - statistics & numerical data
Ethnic Identity
European Continental Ancestry Group - psychology
Female
Hispanic Americans - psychology
Hispanic Americans - statistics & numerical data
Human
Humans
Immigration
Latinos/Latinas
Male
Persistence
Self Efficacy
Social Cognition
Students - psychology
Students - statistics & numerical data
Theories
Undergraduate Education
Universities
Young Adult
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Summary:Objectives: We used the model of critical consciousness (CC; Freire, 1973) to examine college persistence in a sample of Hispanic Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) college students in contrast to Hispanic and non-Hispanic White U.S. citizens. To do this, we looked to social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) to clarify the development of CC and its association with college persistence in students facing marginalization due to immigration status and racial/ethnic identity. Method: The sample consisted of 368 undergraduate college students, including 89 Hispanic DACA recipients, 88 Hispanics with U.S. citizenship, and 191 non-Hispanic Whites with U.S. citizenship. Students completed scales on intent to persist in college, political self-efficacy, political outcome expectations, critical reflection, critical action, and supports and barriers for critical action. Results: The data were examined using multigroup structural equation modeling; goodness of fit indices suggested good model fit for all groups. Tests of structural invariance revealed that 7 relational paths were equal across student groups, while race/ethnicity and immigration status differentiated the strength of 7 paths. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that there are differences in how Hispanic DACA students experience CC in relation to support for their political advocacy and activism. Findings also highlight that political outcome expectations predicted higher intent to persist in college for all students, including Hispanic DACA students.
ISSN:1099-9809
1939-0106
DOI:10.1037/cdp0000200