Underrepresented college students and the reduction of stereotype threat: Threat overprotection through social support, unrealistic optimism, and unintended self-handicapping of academic decision-making

As a practitioner in Academic Student Services, I am interested in examining the replicability and real world application of Steele's (1995) stereotype vulnerability paradigm in a situation where the stereotype vulnerability performance deficit is attenuated by an instructional manipulation that diminishes the stereotype potency. Considerable evidence suggests that students from underrepresented groups face disproportionately higher levels of academic frustration and dissatisfaction with the college environment than their peers. In comparison, the members of majority groups come to college more academically prepared, are more likely to belong to second or higher generation college graduate, come from higher performing high schools, and seem to experience fewer transitional concerns adjusting to the rigor and social climate of higher education. It was believed that an application of the mechanisms may facilitate underperformance in stereotype threat conditions provides insight on how a sizable number of students from underrepresented groups perpetuate the cycle of underachievement. The author posited that students who want to insulate their self-concepts from stereotype threat may produce a self-fulfilling prophecy by embracing distraction tasks that may further serve to exacerbate academic risk while sabotaging their academic success. In this study, I examined whether the overprotection from stereotype threat results in a set of cognitive appraisals that protect students from stereotype threat but may actually perpetuate academic achievement deficits. In a 2x2 factorial design, students were randomly assigned to one of two stereotype threat conditions and one of two social distraction conditions before they completed a standardized test of performance. The investigator hypothesized that the classic stereotype threat effect would be observed but that the introduction of distraction mediation would attenuate this effect in the emergence of a stereotype threat by distraction interaction. Results of this study on 202 college students provide support for key predictions. The implications of the hypothesized findings were discussed in terms of academic resource programs that attempt to ameliorate the achievement gap between underrepresented students and their majority student peers.