Journal of Psychology & Behavioral Science

Ethnic Minority Status Stress, Self-Efficacy, and Persistence Intentions among Hispanic College Women: A Moderation Analysis
Consuelo Arbona

Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine among Hispanic college women to what extent ethnic minority status stress was uniquely associated to persistence intentions when taking into account general college stress. The study also examined if college self-efficacy moderated the relation of minority status stress to students’ persistence intentions. Participants were 135 Hispanic undergraduate female students (67.4% of Mexican descent; 80.7% born in the United States) enrolled in a diverse, major research, urban, public university in the Southwest United States. Findings revealed that at the bivariate level, both college stress and minority stress were negatively related to students’ college persistence intentions. However, ethnic minority status stress did not contribute unique variance to persistence intentions when controlling for general college stress. College self-efficacy moderated the relation of both college stress and minority status stress to persistence intentions; that is, both college stress and minority status stress were negatively related to persistence intentions among students who scored the lowest in self- efficacy; neither stress variable was associated to persistence intentions among students with the highest levels of self-efficacy. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jpbs.v4n1a2