A Comparison of Self-reported Physical Health and Health Conditions of American Indian/Alaskan Natives to Other College
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ORIGINAL PAPER
A Comparison of Self-reported Physical Health and Health Conditions of American Indian/Alaskan Natives to Other College Students David A. Patterson-Silver Wolf • Carol VanZile-Tamsen • Jessica Black Shanondora M. Billiot • Molly Tovar
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Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract American Indian/Alaska Natives comprise a small portion of the general college student population, but often have the poorest health and wellness, as well as the highest dropout rates compared to any other race or ethnicity. Despite the well-documented issues this group faces in higher education, they are often ignored in studies due to their status as the minority within the minority, comprising only 0.8 % of all college students in the US. This study examines the differences in college students’ overall ratings of health across racial and ethnic groups, focusing specifically on the health and wellness of AI/AN students compared to their counterparts. This paper also investigates the physical health issues students experienced in the past 12 months and the health issues’ impact on their academic achievement. Results showed that AI/AN students reported
D. A. Patterson-Silver Wolf (&) Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St Louis, 1 Brookings Dr., Campus Box 1196, St Louis, MO 63130, USA e-mail: [email protected] C. VanZile-Tamsen Office of University Accreditation and Assessment, University at Buffalo, 210 Capen Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. Black S. M. Billiot M. Tovar Brown School of Social Work, Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, Washington University in St Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, Box 1196, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA e-mail: [email protected] S. M. Billiot e-mail: [email protected] M. Tovar e-mail: [email protected]
the lowest overall health ratings and the most health issues in the past year. Keywords American Indian/Alaska Natives College retention College dropout Student health Academic achievement Health and wellness
Introduction According to the United States Census Bureau, approximately 3 million people reported their sole race as American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), and 2.3 million people reported their race as combined AI/AN and one or more other races [33]. These numbers indicate a shift from the census in 2000, where 2.5 million people reported their sole race as AI/AN and 4.1 million people reported their race as combined AI/AN and one or more other races [33]. Although these prevalence rates clearly show that AI/ NA peoples constitute a significant population in the United States, AI/AN make up only about 0.9 % of all college students nationwide [23]. AI/ANs are the minority within the minority of the approximate 21 million college students in the United States [34]. College dropout among AI/AN students throughout the United States are well-documented, however [12, 26, 31, 32]. According to Brown and Robinson Kurpius [13], 75–93 % of AI/AN students drop out of college prior to degree completion,
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