Ethnic Enclaves and the Dynamics of Social Identity on the College Campus: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Abstract

The effects of membership in ethnic organizations and fraternities and sororities on intergroup attitudes were examined using a 5-wave panel study at a major, multiethnic university. The results showed that these effects were similar for both minority and White students. Membership in ethnic student organizations for minorities and Greek organizations for Whites was anteceded by the degree of one's ethnic identity, and the effects of membership in these groups were similar, although not identical, for both White and minority students. These effects included an increased sense of ethnic victimization and a decreased sense of common identity and social inclusiveness. Consistent with social identity theory, at least a portion of these effects were mediated by social identity among both White and minority students.

Identity-based motivation and health.

“…Together with selfcategorization theories (Abrams & Hogg, 2004;Turner, Oakes, Haslam, & McGarty, 1994), a social identity framework suggests that when a social group to which one belongs is made situationally salient, both similarity to the in-group and the relevant meanings associated with the in-group social identity will be brought to mind (Cohen & Garcia, 2005;Haslam, O'Brien, & Jetten, 2005;Pickett & Brewer, 2001;Sidanius, Van Laar, & Levin, 2004). Thus, social identities provide a sense of self based on characteristics associated with one's in-group (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987).…”

Cross-Racial Interactions during College: A Longitudinal Study of Four Forms of Interracial Interactions among Elite White College Students

“…However, many of these studies were cross-sectional making it impossible to verify or identify a causal link between contact and prejudice reduction, and limited longitudinal analyses of intergroup contact effects exist, though they are increasing in presence. Recently, a resurgence among scholars examining interracial contact on college campuses nationwide has led to the development of more information about the phenomenon and its processes [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. The current study extends this important line of research by examining the effects of cross-race interactions among white students at elite colleges in the U.S. over four years.…”

“…Furthermore, the changing influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable that occur with each additional block of variables can be identified through checking the output of results. This procedure has been used in several other longitudinal studies of intergroup contact among college students [8][9][10][11]16,17,20,21,61] and cross-sectional data [5,6]. Table 1 contains the descriptive statistics for the variables in the model for white students.…”

“…However, the UCLA student study did find that racial-ethnic minority students that were members of ethnic-related organizations and white students who were members of Greek social organizations had higher levels of racial identification and feelings of a zero-sum game between racial-ethnic groups [16,17]. Trail and colleagues [19] found freshman who roomed with a student of another racial-ethnic group had less positive feelings toward that group after a few weeks.…”

“…In relation to student organization participation, white students are more likely to be members of Greek fraternities and sororities [16,17]. In a study of ten selective colleges and universities, white students were found to room with other whites (96.0%) at higher rates than Asian Pacific Islanders (26.1%), blacks (16.5%), and Hispanics and Latinos (13.6%) [7].…”