Ethnic Minority Status Stress, Parental Connection and Life Satisfaction Among Racial/Ethnic Diverse College Students: A Moderation Analysis

Racial/ethnic minorities have long experienced disparities in life outcomes across multiple domains (e.g., education, employment, and physical and mental health). In terms of the domain of education racial/ethnic minority status is often associated with engagement in underfunded schools and lower quality of mental health in comparison with those who hold European American majority status. Although the mental health of racial/ethnic minority college students is influenced by general academic stressors that affect all college students, including things like exams, writing papers, and presenting projects, their mental health is also likely to be negatively affected by additional stressors, including experiences with racism and discrimination, traumatic stress, educational hegemony, insensitive comments, and questions of belonging on a college campus. These experiences are often referred to as minority status stressors. These unique racial/ethnic stressors can result in racial/ethnic minority status holding college students to experience specific coping strategies, heightened feelings of not belonging, and interfere with their adjustment to college overall. For racial/ethnic minority students, strong relationship qualities such as connectedness with family has been shown to be a potential protective factor given its association with better mental health outcomes. Therefore, the present study seeks to examine parental connectedness as a potential buffer in the MSS and life satisfaction association for racial/ethnic minority college students. This study utilized data that was previously collected as part of a larger study, thus is a secondary data analysis. Participants were 356 racial/ethnic college students between the ages of 18-25 years and were recruited through Texas Tech Universities Psychology SONA Participant Pool. A series of moderation analyses were conducted using Model 1 in the SPSS PROCESS Version 29 macro. Results showed that MSS was significantly associated with lower life satisfaction, and higher levels of parental connectedness were positively related to life satisfaction. However, contrary to the third hypothesis, parental connectedness did not moderate the relationship between MSS and life satisfaction, suggesting that while parental support is beneficial, it may not be sufficient to buffer the specific stressors linked to minority status. Results of this study underscores the complex relationship between MSS, parental connectedness, and life satisfaction among racial/ethnic minority college students. These findings highlight the need for continued research into the specific factors that can help minority students cope with the unique stressors they face in higher education.