Ethnic Minority Students
Campus Experiences
of Ethnic Minorities
The campus experiences of ethnic minorities may uniquely be influenced by several sociocultural and environmental factors. Researchers have studied the role played by these factors in explaining observed differences in the adjustment and college performance experience of minority and non-minority students (Elmers & Pike, 1997; Smedley, Meyers & Harell, 1993). Smedley, Meyers and Harrell (1993) labeled these collective differences as “minority status stresses” (p. 435). Furthermore, they defined them as experiences which “constitute a separate and additional pathway of risk for mal-adjustment, (that is an additional stress load)” (p. 35) for minority students on campus in comparison to their majority peers.
The Effect of Minority Status Stresses
In addition, Smedley, Myers & Harrell (1993) described two ways that minority status stresses effect ethnic minority college students. First, they may directly impact the way students are perceived and treated on campus. In other words students may be treated negatively based on the minority groups to which they ascribe and second, the de facto marginalized status of minority students, based on population size, may exacerbate otherwise normal student stresses. In their study (N=161) of minority freshmen, the researchers found a “significant association between minority status-related stresses and lower GPA” (p. 446).
Ethnic Minorities
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The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
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