The Educational Benefits of Sustaining Cross-Racial Interaction among Undergraduates

This study examined whether students who either had higher levels of cross-racial interaction during college or had same institution peers with higher average levels tend to report significantly larger developmental gains than their counterparts report. Unlike previous quantitative studies that test...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of higher education (Columbus) 2006-05, Vol.77 (3), p.430-455
Main Authors: Chang, Mitchell J., Denson, Nida, Sáenz, Victor, Misa, Kimberly
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Adolescent Development
Attitudes
Cognitive Development
College students
Colleges
Consciousness Raising
Cultural Awareness
Education
Educational Environment
Educational equalization
Equal education
Evaluation
Interaction
Modeling
Multicultural education
Quantitative analysis
Race relations
Racial Differences
Racial diversity
Racial Relations
School campuses
Self concept
Self Esteem
Social interaction
Statistical variance
Student Attitudes
Student Diversity
Student exchange programs
Student interaction
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:This study examined whether students who either had higher levels of cross-racial interaction during college or had same institution peers with higher average levels tend to report significantly larger developmental gains than their counterparts report. Unlike previous quantitative studies that tested cross-racial interaction using single-level linear models, this study more accurately modeled the structure of multilevel data by applying Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). The general pattern of findings suggests that higher individual levels of cross-racial interaction have positive effects on students' openness to diversity, cognitive development, and self-confidence. The results also show that even though a student's own level of cross-racial interaction is a more direct and powerful way to realize developmental gains, just being in an environment where other students are interacting frequently also contributes to students' self-reported development.
ISSN:0022-1546
1538-4640
DOI:10.1080/00221546.2006.11778933