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What’s Past is Prologue: How Precollege Exposure to Racial Diversity Shapes the Impact of College Interracial Interactions

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Abstract

The educational and societal benefits of promoting meaningful interracial interactions during college are well-established. While most previous studies have examined the relationship between interracial interactions and college student outcomes among all students, much less is known about the extent to which these effects depend upon student characteristics and, more specifically, their precollege experiences. Drawing upon Gurin et al.’s (Harv Educ Rev 72:330–366, 2002) theoretical framework, this paper explores whether and how the impact of college interracial interactions might vary depending upon students’ precollege exposure to diversity. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses were conducted on a 4-year longitudinal sample of 3,098 undergraduates from 28 colleges and universities. Regardless of the type of outcome and type of precollege diversity measure, the relationship between college interracial interactions and various outcomes (college satisfaction, emotional well-being, and race-related perceptions) were stronger among students who had had greater precollege exposure to racial/ethnic diversity. Implications for higher education research and practice are discussed.

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Acknowledgment

The authors thank the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen for the use of this data. This manuscript was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project award to the second author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs, Bowling Green State University, 330 Education Building, Bowling Green, OH, 43403, USA

    Nicholas A. Bowman

  2. Centre for Educational Research, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Nida Denson

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  1. Nicholas A. Bowman
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  2. Nida Denson
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Correspondence to Nicholas A. Bowman.

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Table 4 Descriptive statistics for all variables
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Bowman, N.A., Denson, N. What’s Past is Prologue: How Precollege Exposure to Racial Diversity Shapes the Impact of College Interracial Interactions. Res High Educ 53, 406–425 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-011-9235-2

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