Racial Disparities in College Students’ Scholastic Adjustment Amidst COVID-19: The Protective Function of Campus Resources and Supports

Scientific investigations are needed to understand the extent to which COVID-19 has affected, and exacerbated racial disparities in, college students’ scholastic adjustment. We propose a study based on two waves of data collected as part of a large-scale, longitudinal study on college students’ well-being amidst COVID-19. More specifically, we will evaluate a model of risk and protective factors for college students’ scholastic adjustment across three time points within the 2020-21 academic year. The first aim is to evaluate contextual risk factors for college students’ scholastic difficulties during COVID-19 and whether contextual risk is more pronounced for minoritized students. The second aim is to examine whether campus supports and resources buffer risk for scholastic difficulties for all students, and especially minoritized students, during COVID-19. College students (N=522) from two, residential liberal arts colleges participated in the first wave of data in the fall and will be invited to participate in two waves of data collection in the spring. Developmental researchers conduct large-scale longitudinal studies in collaborative teams because such studies are extremely labor- and time-intensive. Examples of tasks that necessitate teamwork include recruiting and compensating participants; managing data; and conducting analyses. See below for details about methods and analyse