The roles of ethnic identity, anti-white attitudes, and academic self-concept in African American student achievement

Abstract

Conventional wisdom in much of the educational and psychological literatures states that the ethnic and racial identity of African American students is related to their academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine whether ethnic identity and anti-white attitudes predicted the academic achievement of African American students at a historically Black university. A hypothesized path model was proposed that included ethnic identity, attitudes toward other ethnic groups, anti-white attitudes, perceptions of caring faculty, academic self-concept, and devaluing academic success. The path analysis model explained 27% of the variance in grade point average and revealed three direct effects on grade point average: (a) academic self-concept (positive), (b) devaluing academic success (negative), and (c) anti-white attitudes (negative). Ethnic identity was indirectly linked with grade point average (GPA) through academic self-concept and devaluing academic success. Tests of two alternative nested models suggest that even in an indirect role, ethnic identity may be more important than anti-white attitudes in a model of African American academic achievement.