Interaction between Community College Processes and Asian American and Pacific Islander Subgroups

Abstract

This paper examines two topics understudied in higher education: the within group diversity of ethnic subgroups subsumed by the label Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and minority-serving institutions. Using structural equation modeling, this paper examines the college pathways of community college students in Hawai‘i through the experience of Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawai‘ian and White students with the intention of understanding their college-learning processes. Analysis of interaction terms in structural equation models reveals race has a moderating effect on students' college experience views. The results from structural equation modeling also show some differences in main effects and total effects due to the inclusion of several interaction terms and the relaxing of the nonrecursive assumption.