Exploring Black College Women's Sense of Belonging and Coping

Background and Purpose: Despite significant increases to undergraduate degree program enrollment rates among Black and Latinx women, recent studies have indicated that Black and Latinx students enrolled in predominately White colleges or universities have a difficult time remaining engaged in their studies due to negative experiences (i.e., microaggressions) and personal circumstances (i.e., financial challenges) (Digest of Education Statistics, 2019; Murphy & Zirkel, 2015). These experiences may influence their academic progress and overall college experience (Murphy & Zirkel, 2015; Robinson-Wood, 2015). For many racial and ethnic minority students, the internal process of psychological adjustment can be affected through adverse experiences linked to feeling like an “outsider” while in spaces where their identities are not widely represented (Hipolito-Delgado, 2016;Maramba & Velasquez, 2012). This IRB-approved phenomenological study sought to explore 1) how Black college women attending predominantly white colleges or universities perceive their sense of belonging, 2) the ways a sense of belonging affects Black college women’s academic progress, and the strategies they use to cope with these experiences. In this study, we use the term Black women to describe individuals who identify as female and have ancestry linked to the African diaspora.

Methods: The initial study sample included n=6 participants, who engaged in one of two focus group discussions. Each discussion was audio recorded and transcribed. Study participants self-reported their racial and ethnic identity, academic standing, and grade point average (GPA) with two participants indicating they had previously been on academic probation, and one participant had been on terminal probation during their first year of college. The median GPA reported was 2.9 on a four-point scale. The median participant age was 21.9, and participants were indicated they were enrolled in liberal arts, social, and physical science academic programs. Most of the sample (66%) identified as African American and 44% identified as Latinx. Participants were recruited via flyers disseminated to student groups on college and university campuses in the Northeastern region of the United States. The transcriptions of these discussions were analyzed using a hybrid of inductive and deductive thematic analysis.

Results: Results of the data analysis found three themes in the participants' responses 1) belonging is attributed to feelings of inclusion in the campus community, 2) a sense of belonging can impact academic progress by way of influencing motivation and self-efficacy for Black women, and 3) Black women cultivate communities within their college or university to develop a sense of belonging and enhance their perseverance.

Conclusions and implications: These results echo prior studies asserting that sense of belonging influences Black women's academic progress, especially those enrolled in predominantly white institutions (Booker, 2016; Dortch & Patel, 2017; Robinson-Wood, 2015). Additionally, creating community and perseverance were common themes in the discussion and are highlighted as one of the major resources for developing and maintaining a sense of belonging (Booker, 2016; Jones, 2009; Lemberger-Trulove, 2018). These findings suggest that development of culturally appropriate interventions and educational policy changes to address systemic issues that affect the experiences of Black college women are needed.