Theories of college student and adult intellectual development have shown that learning to interpret, evaluate, and construct knowledge evolves in a developmentally predictable fashion, and have offered explanations for the difficulties some students face when asked to make their own decisions (Baxter Magolda, 1992; Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger,…

Increasing numbers of students with disabilities attend colleges and universities after graduation from high school, but studies show that students with disabilities lag behind academically and fail to make progress and complete academic programs at a level and a timeframe comparable to their peers without disabilities. Studies are needed that…

Racial microaggressions are subtle (often unintentional or unconscious) forms of racial discrimination that negatively affect victims' mental health. Utilizing an undergraduate student sample (N = 225), the current study examined the relationship between racial microaggressions and self-esteem. Results indicate that racial microaggressions…

The exploitation of college athletes has been a topic of controversy within American higher education for over half of a century. Especially in the revenue-generating sports of men's basketball and football, critics have highlighted the surplus gains expropriated by colleges and universities on the backs of these young men, who are…

Consensual sexual relationships between students and faculty have traditionally been viewed as private matters and have been ignored by university administrators except in cases that resulted in sexual harassment claims. Due to increasing sexual harassment litigation and the liabilities associated with such relationships, universities have…

To better understand the role of academic advising in the challenges faced by students who transfer from community colleges to 4-year institutions, we examined advising experiences of two groups: (a) from two community colleges students who intended to transfer to 4-year institutions and (b) from five universities students who had transferred from…

While past research has documented significant relationships between both athletic and Greek system (fraternity and sorority) membership and negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians, such work seems to vilify membership in athletics and the Greek system as causal mechanisms of homophobia. In this way, athletes and Greeks may be easy targets to…

Research has demonstrated that parenting styles partially explain college students' academic adjustment. However, to account for academic adjustment more fully, additional contributors should be identified and tested. We examined the fit of a hypothesized model consisting of parenting styles, indicators of well-being, and academic adjustment…

Despite the widely documented benefits associated with racial diversity in higher education, less is known about why and how race matters. A potential answer may be found in how students conceptualize race. This qualitative study explores students' underlying racial conceptions, which have been shown to influence various attitudes and…

This study examines the impact of the recent financial crisis on co-occurring patterns of change in financial strain and financial coping behaviors of college students (N = 748) using two-timed, longitudinal data collected prior to the 2008 financial crisis and again one year later. Using a stress and coping framework, we found that different…

We investigated the relationship between parent support and peer support as predictors of depression and self-esteem in college students. Several competing models of parental and peer influence were compared including a mediational model in which peer support was hypothesized to mediate the effects of parental support on adjustment. The results…

Although international attention to understanding college student development, learning, and experiences has increased, leading higher education journals do not seem to have kept pace. We examined 8 higher education and student affairs journals (5 from the US, 3 from Europe) from 1998 to 2011. We found overall that 5% of articles addressed…

Although numerous studies have documented an association between parent attachment and college student adjustment, less is known about the mechanisms that underlie this relation. Accordingly, this short-term longitudinal study examined first-year college students' attitudes about academic help-seeking as one possible mechanism. As predicted,…

This study critically analyzes White male college student narratives regarding racial joking. Through semi-structured interviews, 29 participants described a pattern of behavior and rationalization: they heard and told racist jokes frequently; the jokes were framed as not racist; and the jokes were told only among White people, because the…

To address the widespread problem of sexual assault, many colleges and universities are providing primary prevention education programs. Although a number of such programs exist and appear in the literature (for review see Vladutiu, Martin, & Macy, 2011), the role of peer education theater offers a unique approach. Peer education has been…