In this book, the authors bring together in one place essential information about college students in the US in the 21st century. Synthesizing existing research and theory, they present an introduction to studying student characteristics, college choice and enrollment patterns, institutional types and environments, student learning, persistence,…

Heterosexist phrases on college campuses can contribute to negative consequences among lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and other sexual minority students (LGBQ+), however, their relationship to academic outcomes remains under-researched. This analysis investigates hearing the microaggressions "that's so gay" and "no homo" on…

We used quantitative data from the National Study of LGBTQ Student Success to investigate if participation in high-impact educational practices influenced lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ+) students' academic development. We also examined if these effects are mediated by perceptions of the campus environment. Our findings suggested that…

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…

Racial identity development among college students with parents from different heritage groups was largely unexplored until the 1990s, when two forces--one demographic, the other theoretical--converged to stimulate interest in understanding the experiences and identities of biracial and multiracial youth. The increasing number of students from two…

This article focuses on understanding how identity development is conceptualized in student affairs. The need to understand the person, context, and interactions between the two advances identity theories as relevant to student affairs practice. The more practitioners understand how students make meaning of their identities, the better they are…

Using an ecology model of human development, frames the exploration of racial identities of 38 college students with multiple racial heritages. Maps the influence of interactions within and between specific environments on students' decisions to identify in one or more of five patterns of mixed race identity found in a previous study. (Contains 43…

Although a growing body of scholarship describes the development of LGBT identity in college students and abundant literature provides evidence of the developmental impact of campus involvement, little has been known about the experiences of LGBT student leaders. We interviewed 15 students from three Midwestern institutions and analyzed data using…

This study explored the interaction of multiracial identity development and college campus contexts in the experience of 24 biracial or multiracial college students attending three institutions an Ivy League university, a Catholic university, and a liberal arts college. The study applied qualitative grounded theory as framed by postmodern racial…

This study examined how campus peer culture influences the ways in which multiracial students make meaning of their racial identity, and applies Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of cognitive development to analyze elements in the college environment that stimulate or inhibit identity development. Discussion of the situation of multiracial…