Predicting the Adjustment of Black Students at Predominantly White Institutions

Person-environment congruence is a major conceptual tool used by theorists to predict behavior and understand the personenvironment relationship, particularly among students in the college or university environment 9, 10, 31, 39. Within the context of higher education, congruence theorists suggest that a good fit between students (their needs, attitudes, goals, and expectations) and the environment (its press, demands, supports, and the characteristics of its inhabitants) has a positive impact and promotes satisfaction, achievement, and personal growth, whereas poor fit creates stress 23, p. 139. Findings from a cross-section of research studies suggest that Black students who attend predominantly White colleges and universities experience greater difficulty in achieving levels of congruence than their White counterparts. Black students perceive greater racial tension and hostility in their environment 46, express lower levels of satisfaction 2, 17 and greater levels of isolation 14, and feel less identified with the institution 3 than do White students. Suen found that Black students were significantly more likely than White students to experience feelings of alienation and that these feelings of alienation were related to attrition among Black students, but not for White students 38. Fleming also found that Black students who graduated from predominantly White colleges and universities derived lower levels of intellectual and psychosocial development than their counterparts who grad-