The Factors That Influence African Self-Consciousness, Well-Being And Academic Efficacy Among Social Work Students Attending A Historically Black University

Abstract

African self-consciousness (ASC) is a psychological and social construct that interweaves historical, cultural, social, and spiritual essence into African American identity. This study examined the interrelationships among African self-consciousness and well-being constructs (educational satisfaction, cultural satisfaction, life satisfaction, health satisfaction and spiritual satisfaction) and demographic variables (age and student status) as well as the goodness of these variables as predictors of academic efficacy (field placement experiences and grade point average) among social work students. The sample consisted of 100 social work students (n = 27 BSW students and n =73 MSW) attending a historically Black university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Six hypotheses were tested using Pearson correlation, t-test, and multiple regression analyses. African self-consciousness was not a predictor of most of the well-being criterion variables. However, it did show significant positive correlation to spiritual satisfaction and negatively related to cultural satisfaction (ethnic identity). Major findings revealed a significant correlation between education satisfaction, life satisfaction, health satisfaction and academic efficacy among participants. Additionally, multiple regression analyses revealed that health satisfaction and age were strong predictors of a student's field placement experience. Only students' status significantly predicted grade point average. Study implications, and future research directions are also discussed.