Racial Diversity Influences Community Leadership Identity Development: Homogeneity as a Baseline for Measurement

Abstract

This study uses multilevel regression modeling to explore how racial diversity and other campus climate variables influence the development of community leadership identity on college campuses. Pulling from a longitudinal sample of students ( n = 7,829) over a 4-year period, findings show that attending a college campus with more racially similar peers (i.e., racial homogeneity) played a positive indirect role in predicting community leadership goals. This study's findings contribute to the existing literature on the influence of race and diversity on leadership development and provide insights that shape the development of community leaders.