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WHDL - 00016146

Single parents, race, and community college success: A qualitative study

Viviana Bravo

Resource Types

Academic (Thesis, Dissertation, Etc.)

Resource Languages

English

Institutional Repository

Description / Abstract

Single parents are enrolling in postsecondary institutions at an increasing rate; however, their graduation rate remains low. Single-parent, community college students who drop out tend to do so due to the various barriers they encounter. Research concerning single parents and their viewpoints of community colleges’ student services is lacking. This qualitative study explores single-parent students’ perceptions about community colleges’ student support services with regard to their marital status, race or ethnicity, and gender. Themes from focus group and one-on-one interviews found single parents to perceive services as solely focusing on traditional students and not on single parents’ needs. Additionally, Hispanic/Latinx, single-parent, community college students viewed the services poorly compared to African American students and White participants due to negative experiences with staff and an overall lack of support from their institutions. Single mothers and single fathers differed slightly in perception, with singlemother, community college students focusing on how the current services do not meet their needs as single parents. Single fathers, alternatively, had a lack of demand for the services. Community colleges can help support single-parent students’ education by increasing the promotion of services that apply to nontraditional students as well as having flexible modes of learning for single parents to access. Institutions can also train their faculty and staff to be more accommodating towards single-parent, community college students in order to promote students’ success.

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Copyright Notes

This material is used by permission of the rightsholder in accordance with the terms of the relevant content release. As a user, you have permission to use this content and download a copy for non-commercial use only. Downloading multiple quantities of this resource is expressly forbidden.

KeywordsSingle parents, Community college, Student services

Degree AwardedDoctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership

Awarding InstitutionNorthwest Nazarene University

Committee MembersAngélica Gutiérrez, Alejandro L. Zamora

Supervisor or ChairHeidi Curtis

Peer Reviewed?No

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