Psychological Coping and Well-Being of Male Latino Undergraduates

Abstract

This study examined 100 male Latino undergraduates' cultural self-esteem, perceived educational barriers, cultural fit, coping responses (CRs), and subsequent well-being within higher education. The most commonly reported CR for Latino males was to actively find out more about the situation and take a positive planned action. Assessing group mean differences, a class standing by generation interaction revealed that first-generation lower division and first-generation upper division students reported higher perceptions of barriers to staying in school than second-generation lower division and second-generation upper division students, respectively. Similarly, examining differences of coefficients, the strength of the relationship of perceptions of barriers to staying in school and psychological well-being was significantly stronger for the first-generation than second-generation male students Cultural congruity and emotion-focused coping were most predictive of psychological well-being; however, perception of barriers to staying in school was consistently evident in understanding male Latino undergraduates' educational experiences.

The reliability and validity of the cultural congruity and university environment scales with Chicana/o community college students

“…Consistently highlighted in the literature, perceptions of welcoming educational environments significantly influence, and are predictive of, academic persistence processes (Schmitt & Duggan, 2011) and psychological well-being (Gloria et al, 2005a(Gloria et al, , 2009. Such reported experiences reinforces the notion that educational achievement requires more than academic motivation (Cabrera & Padilla, 2004).…”

“…Cultural congruity, or a match of one's cultural or personal values with those of the university (Gloria & Robinson Kurpius, 1996), is used to understand Latina/o undergraduates' academically-related experiences. Cultural congruity is also significantly predictive of educationally-emphasized constructs such as academic resilience (Castellanos & Gloria, 2007) and achievement (Cerezo & Chang, 2013); persistence decisions (Oseguera et al, 2009);and etic (Gloria, Castellanos, Lopez, & Rosales, 2005a;Gloria, Castellanos, Scull, & Villegas, 2009) and emic (Segura-Herrera, 2008) well-being.…”

“…Participants responded to a 4-point Likert-type scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), with a sample item of, "I feel I have to change myself to fit in school." Adequate internal consistencies for Latina (.84, Gloria et al, 2010) and Latino male (.85, Gloria et al, 2009) undergraduates and a racially diversity sample of community college students (.84, Edman & Brazil, 2009) have emerged.…”

“…For instance, Cabrera and Padilla (2004) reported that Chicana/o students experience overt and covert racism in their educational settings. Such negative educational experiences impact students' sense of belonging (Locks, Hurtado, Bowman, & Oseguera, 2008) and psychological well-being (Gloria et al, 2005a(Gloria et al, , 2009, often resulting in perceived alienation and a sense of isolation from the institution (Cerezo & Chang, 2013;Hurtado & Carter, 1997).…”

“…As students find spaces and connections that allow them a sense of congruity and positive experience of the environment, how students experience their sense of wellness or well-being while on campus has yielded a small literature base specifically regarding Latina/o college students (e.g., Gloria et al, 2005aGloria et al, , 2009Iturbide, Raffaelli, & Carlo, 2009;Rodriguez, Mira, Myers, Morris, & Cardoza, 2003). Although psychological well-being has been explored with Latina/o students in higher education with success, Segura-Herrera (2008) implemented a multiphase, multistep process to develop a culturally-valid and value-specific measure of Latina/o college students' well-being within the content of higher education.…”