The study abroad experience is an important fixture of American higher education, with politicians, institutions, and mainstream media calling for increased participation. Participation in study abroad can potentially benefit students' personal, academic, and career development. However, historical educational data have shown that some groups, such as Students of Color, have been underrepresented in study abroad participation at American colleges and universities. To better understand the racial gap in study abroad participation, this study combined the Theory of Planned Behavior and critical race theory to explore the intersections of race and racism with factors (i.e., attitude, subject norm, perceived behavioral control) that predict students' intention to study abroad, and the role of social and non-social environmental influences on these factors (e.g., advertisements, advisers). The results indicated that for Students of Color and White students, racial identity and expected effects of racism were related in different ways to attitude (i.e., students' evaluation of study abroad), subjective norm (i.e., their sense of social support), and perceived behavioral control (i.e., their sense of the ease of studying abroad). For attitude, Students of Color thought both their race and racism would affect their personal experience and viewed racism as a built-in aspect of the study abroad experience, where White students generally thought neither would affect them. For subjective norm, White students generally did not believe racism affected the kinds of support they received. In contrast, there was evidence of exclusion for Students of Color, such as being ignored by campus recruiters promoting study abroad and being ignored by academic advisers. Students of Color also evaluated the usefulness of information from supportive figures based to the racial identity of the source as a proxy for the ability to understand the nuance of race while studying abroad. For perceived behavioral control, White students thought their racial identity would make it easier to study abroad and did not think racism would affect their ease of studying abroad. Overall, the Theory of Planned Behavior accurately predicted White students' intentions to study abroad, where their positive perceptions of study abroad, support to study abroad, and fewer barriers were generally correlated with their intentions to study abroad. In contrast, Students of Color demonstrated greater behavioral intention to study abroad even though they had negative expectations about their experience, especially with racism, a lack of support from advisers and greater expectations of racism as a potential barrier. In drawing on the lived experiences of Students of Color, these findings suggest that racism may not be well modeled by the traditional patterns described by decision-making theories like the Theory of Planned Behavior. Similarly, the framework does not address the potential moderating role of racial identity. For example, for subjective norm supportive figures like advisers engaged in supportive behaviors as theorized by the framework, but for Students of Color, they were served more as barriers. This study also found that students' beliefs were found to be influenced by both social and nonsocial factors, such as social media and advertisements, the discovery of how race and racism may be intertwined with students' decisions about study abroad creates potential opportunities to improve recruitment strategies that address the beliefs of diverse students. More research is needed to better understand how students make decisions despite potential barriers, as well as the ways in which sources influential to students' beliefs about study abroad may be used to increase the accessibility of study abroad and increase the participation of underrepresented groups. The study abroad experience is an important fixture of American higher education, with politicians, institutions, and mainstream media calling for increased participation. Participation in study abroad can potentially benefit students' personal, academic, and career development. However, historical educational data have shown that some groups, such as Students of Color, have been underrepresented in study abroad participation at American colleges and universities. To better understand the racial gap in study abroad participation, this study combined the Theory of Planned Behavior and critical race theory to explore the intersections of race and racism with factors (i.e., attitude, subject norm, perceived behavioral control) that predict students' intention to study abroad, and the role of social and non-social environmental influences on these factors (e.g., advertisements, advisers).
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