Dr. Melissa Morgan Consoli of UCSB’s Gevirtz School will present the special seminar “Overcoming adversities using things my grandmother told me; Cultural values and resilience in Latina/o college students” on Friday, May 16 at 10 am in 1215 Education Building. This event, free and open to the public, will be presented by the Higher Education Action & Research Consortium.
This study investigated the role of cultural values in Mexican American resilience. Using mixed methods, 130 Self-identified Mexican American college students were asked to complete an online survey on resilience and Mexican American Cultural Values as well as two open-ended questions concerning overcoming adversity and cultural values. As hypothesized, Mexican American traditional cultural values (Familismo, Respeto, Religiosidad and Traditional Gender Roles) predicted resilience, with Familismo accounting for the majority of the variance. Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR: Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997) identified emergent themes of Traditional Mexican-American Values including: Familismo, Ethnic Identity, Religiosidad, Perseverance, and Respeto. Results highlight the important role that certain Mexican-American cultural values play in providing strength for overcoming adversities.
Melissa Morgan Consoli is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology. All of her research is conducted through a social justice lens, using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods designs as well as community based research paradigms. Her goal is for research to be culturally relevant, informative in the development of prevention and other community programs, and useful in addressing societal issues of concern for the populations with whom she works.
The UCSB Higher Education Action and Research Consortium (HEARC) is committed to the rigorous investigation of evolving challenges and opportunities confronting contemporary post-secondary students, faculty and administrators in order to: promote access and equity, improve persistence and outcomes, and encourage innovative policy solutions.