A DESCRIPTIVE CORRELATION STUDY OF
MULTICULUTRAL COUNSELING INFLUENCES ON AFRICAN AMERICAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS' GRADUATION STATUS AT A PREDOMINANTLY WHITE UNIVERSITY
Open Access
Author:
Whitehurst, Marcus A.
Graduate Program:
Educational Theory and Policy
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
April 19, 2007
Committee Members:
David P Baker, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Regina Deil Amen, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Shaun R Harper, Committee Member Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member
Keywords:
Multicultural Counseling African American Students
Abstract:
ABSTRACT
The general purpose of this study was to assess the influences of multicultural counseling found for a cohort of African American students, who were first-year students in 1999 and who were targeted students of the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC), at a large public PWI and their degree completion status. Participants of this study were 205 (130=female, 75=male), African American baccalaureate degree-seeking first-year students who voluntarily made contact with a multicultural counselor. This represents 75% (205/273) of the African American undergraduate students admitted in the Fall semester of 1999.
Pre-coded counseling data were combined with student information extracted from the official university data base warehouse. Data analysis was completed using a combination of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Chi square results were used to examine the graduation timeframe (0=graduated within six years or 1=did not graduate within six years) by gender (0=male, 1=female) and by students’ academic college (i.e., 0 = non science colleges and 1 = science colleges). A binary logistic regression was used for assessing the relationship between the primary independent variable, frequency of use of counseling during the six undergraduate years, and college graduation status from the institution while simultaneously controlling for the influence of other variables.
The findings of this current study attempt to address some of the missing elements of counseling by identifying specific reasons why African American students seek to utilize multicultural counseling services and how multicultural counseling use might influence the graduation status of this population.