Author(s): Sebastian Trias, Gerolyn Ryan
Mentor(s): Kent Hinkson, Malisa Brooks
Institution UVU
Research indicates that a sense of community is an integral factor in guiding success for students in higher education. Further research has found that perceived discrimination can have devastating effects on mental health, grades, and graduation rates for groups that are historically underrepresented in higher education. This study aims to gather data on the perceived psychosocial effects of the increasingly prevalent pushes for Anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) legislation in various states. Psychosocial health Impacts will be explored using a “proposed bill†mirroring Utah’s anti-DEI bill (HB261), which was passed in January 2024. This bill, designed as an “Equal Opportunity Initiative,†effectively eradicated programs that served to advocate for historically underrepresented groups in higher education. This research will use stratified random sampling to survey undergraduate students at Utah Valley University using an online Qualtrics questionnaire. Participants will read a two-paragraph summary of the proposed bill before filling out a 20-question survey using a Likert-type scale. Ten questions will serve to identify perceived concerns for the individual, while the other ten will be used to identify the perceived impact on one’s peers. This experiment hypothesizes that majority-group students will not feel disadvantaged psychosocially by this bill, while minority students will feel negatively impacted. Additionally, it is hypothesized that majority-group students will foresee negative impacts on minority-group students and express concern for their peers in the peer-centered questions. Students will be made aware of the study’s deception at the end of the survey.differences in psychosocial impact across demographic categories, including sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, race, and age group will be statistically analyzed and compared to each other. Research implications may include highlighting the importance of increasing community spaces and minority-serving programs in order to increase student resilience and increase the number of minority students with post-secondary degrees.