Abstract
The study was designed to assess the development of Family Independence (FI), Peer Independence (PI), Liberalism (L), Social Conscience (SC), and Cultural Sophistication (CS) among students attending three predominantly black colleges. Responses to the “Attitudes” section of the College Student Questionnaires were obtained from 334 students when they were entering freshmen, end-of-year freshmen, and graduating seniors. The data were analyzed with a repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance design. College, Sex, and Time were the independent variables, and the five attitude scales were the dependent variables. The tests for the main effects of time revealed overall gains on all five scales. A significant Sex × Time interaction indicated that PI scores for males increased, while females' PI scores decreased, during the freshman year; the females' PI scores increased during the subsequent three year period. Significant College × Time interactions were found for FI and CS. College × Sex × Time interactions were significant for L and CS. The results indicated that students who attended these predominantly black colleges developed greater self-reliance and autonomy and broadened interests in political, social, and cultural affairs. The extent of change in these attitudes varied, however, according to the college attended and/or sex of the student.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, W. R. (1976). Collective commitment and individual achievement reconsidered. Contemporary Psychology, 21(8), 551–552.
Bereiter, C. (1963). Some persisting dilemmas in the measurement of change. In Harris, C. W. (Ed.), Problems of measuring change. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Bowles, F., and DeCosta, F. A. (1971). Between two worlds: A profile of Negro higher education. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Centra, J. A., Linn, R. L., and Perry, M. E. (1970). Academic growth in predominantly Negro and predominantly white colleges. American Educational Research Journal, 7(1), 83–98.
Chickering, A. W. (1971). Personality development during the college years. Paper presented at the annual American Educational Research Association meetings.
Cramer, E. (1970). MANOVA-Multivariance analysis of variance. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Computation Center.
Feldman, K. A. (1969). Studying the impacts of colleges on students. Sociology of Education, 42(3), 207–237.
Feldman, K. A., and Newcomb, T. M. (1969). The impact of college on students (Vol. 1). An analysis of four decades of research. Summary tables (Vol. 2). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Fichter, J. H. (1967). Graduates of predominantly Negro colleges: Class of 1964. Public Health Service Publication # 1571. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
Finn, J. D. (1969). Multivariate analyses of repeated measures data. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 4, 391–413.
Frazier, E. F. (1962). Black bourgeousie. New York: Collier Books.
Gurin, P., and Epps, E. (1975). Black consciousness, identity, and achievement. New York: Wiley.
Jaffe, A. J., Adams, W., and Meyers, S. G. (1968). Negro higher education in the 1960's. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers.
Jencks, C., and Riesman, D. (1967). The American Negro college. Harvard Educational Review, 37, 3–60.
Korn, H. A. (1969). Differences in student response to the curriculum. In Katz, J. et al. (Eds.), No time for youth: Growth and constraint in college students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lenning, O. T., Munday, L. A., Johnson, O. B., VanderWell, A. R., and Brue, E. J. (1974). The many faces of college success and their intellective correlates: The published literature through the last decade of the sixties. Iowa City: American College Testing Program.
McCall, R. B., and Appelbaum, M. I. (1973). Bias in the analysis of repeated-measures designs: Some alternative approaches. Child Development, 44(3), 401–415.
Nelsen, E. A. (1971). “CUES results for North Carolina Central University.” Durham, NC: North Carolina Central University, Office of Research and Evaluation.
Nelsen, E. A., and Johnson, N. C. (1972). Attitude changes on the College Student Questionnaire: A study of students enrolled in predominantly black colleges and universities. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, 1971. Abstracted in the College Student Personnel Abstracts, 7, 325–326.
Nelsen, E. A., and Uhl, N. P. (1973). The social environments of segregated and desegregated schools. JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 3, 93–95 (Ms. No. 430).
Nelsen, E. A., and Uhl, N. P. (1974). A factorial study of attitudes on the College Student Questionnaire with students attending a predominantly black university. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 9, 395–405.
Nelsen, E. A., and Uhl, N. P. (1976). The influence of racial composition of desegregated secondary schools upon black students' perceptions of the school climates. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, March, 1976 (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 123 316).
Newcomb, T. M. (1943). Personality and social change: Attitude formation in a student community. New York: Holt.
Peterson, R. E. (1968). College student questionnaires: Technical manual (Revised ed.). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
Pace, C. R. (1969). College and University Environment Scales (Second Edition): Technical manual. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
Sowell, T. (1972). Black education: Myths and tragedies. New York: David McKay Company.
Uhl, N. P. (1971). Identifying institutional goals: Encouraging convergence of opinion through the delphi technique. Durham, NC: National Laboratory for Higher Education.
Uhl, N. P. (1972). Statistical interface system: Vol. II. Data processing guide. Durham, NC: National Laboratory for Higher Education.
Whiting, A. N. (1972). Apartheid in American higher education. Educational Record, Spring, pp. 128–131.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nelsen, E.A., Uhl, N.P. The development of attitudes and social characteristics of students attending predominantly black colleges: A longitudinal study. Res High Educ 7, 299–314 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00991907
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00991907