Abstracts Category : Other

African American Students in a California Community College| Perceptions of Cultural Congruity and Academic Self-Concept within a Black Culture Center

by Tenisha Celita James

This study focused on the cultural congruity and academic self-concept of African American students in a community college setting who participated in a Black Culture Center. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between cultural congruity and academic self-concept through the following two research questions: what relationship, if any, exists between cultural congruity and academic self-concept, and does cultural congruity influence academic self-concept among African American students participating in a Black Culture Center in a two-year historically White college setting. The results of this study provide support for both hypotheses: there was a significant positive correlation between cultural congruity and academic self-concept, and cultural congruity was a significant independent predictor of academic self-concept after controlling for gender, college GPA, college units completed, participation type, and student-faculty interactions. There were two conclusions that were supported by the findings of this research study; (a) increasing the cultural congruity of African American students is likely to result in an increase in academic self-concept, and (b) providing strong academic support and increased opportunities for positive faculty interactions is likely to increase the academic self-concept of African American students. Recommendations based on the findings and conclusions of this study include a commitment by institutions of higher education to invest dedicated resources towards the creation, maintenance, and growth of formal ethnic communities for African American students on historically White campuses. Additionally, it is recommended that college campuses provide targeted academic intervention and support to first-year African American students.