Differences in perceptions of stigma, mentoring support, and achievement potential between stigmatized and non -stigmatized doctoral students

Despite increases in enrollment at the doctoral level, Ph.D. attainment among Black and Latino Americans continues to lag behind that of White Americans. A number of research questions were posed to address the relationships among academically stigmatized and non-stigmatized doctoral students’ perceptions of stigma, their potential to complete the Ph.D., and their perceptions of mentoring and peer support as a way to explain this gap in Ph.D. achievement. Several significant relationships emerged. Importantly, perceptions of stigma and mentoring support did not interact in their effects on intention to complete the Ph.D. for stigmatized participants. In contrast, perceptions of mentoring support fully mediated the relationship between perceptions of stigma and intention to complete for non-stigmatized students. Differences between stigmatized and non-stigmatized doctoral students also emerged when the effects of peer support on achievement potential were examined, and when the effect of the interaction between mentoring support and peer support on achievement potential was examined. Overall the data showed that the experiences of academically stigmatized and non-stigmatized doctoral students are different, and that additional factors should be considered in order to fully explain the gap in Ph.D. attainment observed between the two groups.