The relationships of academic, background, and environmental variables in the persistence of adult African American male students in an urban community college

Students who are older, have a greater need for financial assistance, and have poor academic preparation compose an increasingly larger portion of urban community college populations. The reasons why African American males, who constitute a large percent of this population, have low persistence levels in these colleges is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to develop a model of persistence for African American male urban community college students.;The working model used was based on a model developed by Bean and Metzner which investigated the role of student background and defining variables, academic variables, environmental variables, academic outcomes, psychological outcomes, and intent to leave behavior, and their relationships to persistence. A survey instrument was designed to obtain quantitative and qualitative data. Interviews were completed by eight of the students in the sample which probed deeply into background and environmental histories and perceptions of college academic experiences. The sample consisted of the 205 new African American male students who entered the college in fall 1992. Data collection was initiated and completed during the spring 1993 semester. Ninety-one students in the sample participated.;The model developed in this study illustrates the relationships of the sets of variables that were investigated: the background and defining variables have strong direct effects on persistence; on the set of academic variables; on the set of environmental variables; and on the set of psychological outcome variables. The sets of academic, academic outcome, environmental, and psychological outcome variables are all interrelated and have relationships to persistence. The ability to articulate and internalize educational goals are the variables that have the strongest positive effect on persistence. Stress and intense feelings of helplessness/hopelessness are the variables that have the strongest negative effect.;The findings of this study suggest that urban community colleges could become safe havens of intellectual development for African American male students, and the level of persistence of these students could increase if the necessary activities, program enhancements, and management of services based on student needs were instituted.