ABSTRACTSHIFTING THE FOCUS: THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL AND RACIAL/ETHNIC PROTECTIVE FACTORS IN PROMOTING RESILIENCE AMONG BLACK AND LATINA COLLEGE WOMENByNordia A. CampbellAlthough much of the literature has focused on the academic deficits of Black and Latino college students, there are subsets of this population that have demonstrated remarkable success despite facing societal and systemic challenges. One such group is comprised of Black and Latina college women, who have illustrated resilient academic outcomes (e.g. college enrollment rates, college achievement rates) in spite race- and gender- based discrimination (Perez et al., 2009; Snyder & Dillow, 2015). Therefore, this study explored the protective factors that assist this population in obtaining resilient outcomes in the face of various risk factors. The study used secondary data collected from a sample of female undergraduate students (N = 285) enrolled in a large Midwestern university to determine if two specific types of protective factors (i.e. institutional protective factors, racial/ethnic protective factors) play a significant role in fostering resilient outcomes among the population of interest. Specific protective factors, supported by the literature, were used to represent each type of protective factor; in particular, campus climate served as a representative of institutional protective factors and family ethnic socialization served as a representative of racial/ethnic protective factors. Using these protective factors, the current study investigated whether campus climate and family ethnic socialization predicted the resilience outcome (i.e. GPA), and whether these relationships changed based on one's race/ethnicity and year in college. It is also important to note that parental support was included in the current study as a control variable as the literature suggests that it is the strongest protective factor for the population of interest. Results indicated that institutional and racial/ethnic protective factors are in fact significant predictors of resilience for Black and Latina college women, and that institutional protective factors are especially important for Blacks. However, these results must be interpreted with caution given the measurement limitations discussed in tandem with the results. This study adds to the literature, as there is a lack of previous research investigating institutional and racial/ethnic protective factors; instead, much of the literature explores relational protective factors, such as parental support. Future directions for research on protective factors, as well as practical implications for colleges and universities serving students of color are discussed.
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