A mutual acculturation model of multicultural campus climate and acceptance of diversity.
This study examines the relationship between college students' perceptions of their campus' multicultural climate and their acceptance of racial/ethnic diversity. A two-mediator model, based on acculturation principles, was successfully fit to survey data from 434 college students of diverse racial/ethnic heritage. Results showed that valuing positive interactions with members of ethnocultural groups other than one's own is a positive mediator and strength of ethnocultural identity is a (much less important) negative mediator of the relationship between student perceptions of multicultural campus programming and personal acceptance of diverse racial/ethnic groups. Furthermore, each mediator independently contributed to the prediction of such acceptance. Overall, the model accounts for about 25% of the variance in acceptance of diversity and was a better fit to the data than a reverse path model. Follow-up analyses, separately by ethnic group, showed that perceptions of campus programming predicted acceptance of diversity for the White subsample, but not for the Latino subsample. Nevertheless, the two acculturation-related constructs were important for both groups, with the model accounting for 28% and 24% of their respective variances in acceptance of diversity. Practical implications are drawn.
Department of Psychology, University of California,Northridge, CA 91330-8255, USA.
Samantha J
SJ
Simmons
Michele A
MA
Wittig
Sheila K
SK
Grant
D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000208:ethnology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult