This week we would like to highlight the work of Dr. Sarah Rodriguez, Assistant Professor at Iowa State University.
Dr, Rodriguez’s explored the academic and social obstacles that first and second generation Latino male college students encountered within a predominantly White, research intensive, and highly selective institution and examined how these students coped with those obstacles. Using a qualitative, phenomenological approach, their work explored the following research questions: (1) How do Latino men experience and make meaning of the academic and social obstacles that they encounter during college? (2) How do Latino men utilize coping responses to overcome academic and social obstacles? The study referenced in this brief is from ten semi-structured interviews with Latino male undergraduates at the University of Texas at Austin.
This study provides much needed empirical data on Latino men, who employ several different types of coping responses, at varying times, in order to overcome a variety of obstacles. These men generally favored responses that enabled them to cope internally with obstacles rather than reaching out to support systems or working with others to create proactive plans of action. Sometimes, unsuccessfully, they even attempted to avoid obstacles altogether or suppress feelings associated with those obstacles.
For Dr. Rodriguez’s full brief and the rest of our brief series click here.
