USF St. Petersburg campus Honors Program Theses (Undergraduate)

First Advisor

Dr. Christina Salnaitis

Second Advisor

Dr. Tiffany Chenneville

Publisher

University of South Florida St. Petersburg

Document Type

Thesis

Date Available

2017-09-26

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish the link between race and academic performance in regards to self-perceived discrimination, stereotype threat and race-related stress. There were 61 participants. 44 were White, 5 were Black or African, 7 were Asian and 5 participants characterized themselves as other. The sample contained 52 females and 9 males. Nine (14.8%) individuals reported a Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. The age range of the participants were 18 to 59 years. Participants completed a survey designed to measure selfperceived discrimination, stereotype threat, and race-related stress. Demographic data and grade point average (GPA) were also collected. A multiple linear regression was conducted with GPA as the dependent variable and self-perceived discrimination, race-related stress, and stereotype threat, race, gender, and age as the predictor variables. The results revealed that none of the individual predictors reached significance. The model was not significant. However, race and stereotype threat were trending towards significance. A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between self-perceived discrimination, racerelated stress, and stereotype threat. There was a positive correlation between race related stress and self perceived discrimination and an insignificant correlation between race related stress and stereotype threat. Also, a negative correlation between self-perceived discrimination and stereotype threat was observed. Findings did not support a hypothesized relationship between GPA, self-perceived discrimination, stereotype, and race-related stress. This may be due to insufficient power related to a small sample size and lack of diversity within the sample. Nonetheless, this type of research is important for understanding the relationship between academic performance and racial/ethnic disparities.

Comments

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Honors Program, University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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