Finishing the Race: Examining the Relationships Between Various Forms of Support and the Psychological and Academic Outcomes of African American College Student

Research documenting the significance of institutional and social support for African American college students is scant, and even more limited, is the examination of perceived religious support on African American college student populations, despite religion being one of the most ubiquitous strengths of the African American culture. As such, it is necessary to identify socio-cultural factors that might improve the African American collegiate experience and enhance academic trajectories within this population. This cross-sectional study simultaneously examined the relationships between perceived institutional, social, and religious support and the psychological and academic resilience outcomes of 126 African American college students. No associations were found between perceived institutional support and any of the outcomes. When included in the same model with all three types of support, only perceived religious support remained associated with global resilience and psychological symptoms. Perceived support variables did not account for GPA; however, gender was a significant control. Results suggest the significance of perceived religious support, and to a lesser extent perceived social support, on resilience outcomes of African American college students. These findings imply that African American students demonstrate positive outcomes in collegiate settings when socio-cultural sources of support are present. Moreover, they highlight the need for higher learning institutions to take an integrated systems theoretical approach when developing programs and services for African American college students to ensure that supports provided to this population will be culturally informed, relevant, and effective.