Journal of Hispanic Higher

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Overcoming Personal and Academic Challenges: Perspectives From

Latina/o College Students
Javier Cavazos, Jr, Michael B. Johnson and Gregory Scott Sparrow
Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 2010 9: 304
DOI: 10.1177/1538192710380744
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JHH38074
4
JHHXXX10.1177/1538192710380744Cavazos et al.Journal of Hispanic Higher Education
The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permission: http://www.
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

Overcoming Personal
and Academic
Challenges: Perspectives
From Latina/o College
Students

Journal of Hispanic Higher Education

9(4) 304316
The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permission: http://www.
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1538192710380744
http://jhh.sagepub.com

Javier Cavazos Jr.1, Michael B. Johnson2,

and Gregory Scott Sparrow3

Abstract
Eleven Latina/o college students were interviewed to provide insight into what kind of
coping responses they used to overcome challenges and when such responses were
employed. The following responses emerged: positive reframing, acceptance, self-talk,
maintaining focus on final goals, using low expectations as motivation, self-reflection,
taking action, and seeking support. A discussion regarding the importance of these
findings is provided and implications for practice are presented.
Keywords
Latina/o students, higher education, coping, stress, academic achievement
It is well known that Latina/o students are the fastest growing minority group in the
United States (Quijada & Alvarez, 2006). In addition, Latina/o students have the highest high school dropout rates (American Council on Education, 2008) and 8% attain a
graduate degree (Castellanos & Gloria, 2007). Although research (Cavazos et al.,
2010; Zalaquett, 2006) has examined personal and social factors that help Latina/o
students succeed academically, less attention has been given to the coping responses

Texas A&M UniversityCorpus Christi

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
3
University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg
2

Corresponding Author:
Javier Cavazos Jr., 6300 Ocean Drive, UNIT 5812; Corpus Christi, Texas 78412-5812
Email: Javier.Cavazos@tamucc.edu

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that they use to overcome challenges. First, the current article provides a literature
review that focuses on (a) challenges that impede Latina/o students from pursuing
higher education and (b) coping responses as a theoretical framework. Next, findings
from interviews with 11 Latina/o college students are introduced. Finally, a discussion
regarding the importance of these findings is provided.

Review of the Literature

A number of studies have found that Latina/o students must overcome a plethora
of challenges to pursue higher education. Some challenges include low expectations
(Davison-Aviles, Guerrero, Barajas-Howarth, & Thomas, 1999; Martinez, 2003),
discrimination (Edwards & Romero, 2008), negative school experiences (Martinez,
DeGarmo, & Eddy, 2004), inadequate school facilities, and tracking (Arellano &
Padilla, 1996) and the high school curriculum (Gandara & Contreras, 2009). For a
review of challenges, readers are encouraged to see Cavazos and Cavazos (2010),
Gandara and Contreras, and Immerwahr (2003).
A study by Davison et al. (1999) found that Latina/o high school students felt school
personnel had low expectations of them. For example, a Latino student reported that a
school counselor and principal told him that he would not graduate from high school.
In addition, Martinez (2003) illustrated that Latina/o college students were exposed to
low expectations from high school teachers and counselors. The following is a statement from a participant in Martinezs study, A second incident comes to mind in which
I asked a teacher if I could go to the library to complete a scholarship application and
he indicated that it was a waste of my time (p. 110). In addition, Zalaquett and Feliciano
(2004) contend that some educators believe Latina/o students do not have the potential
to pursue higher education. One educator provided the following comment, They
[Latinas/os] are not college material (p. 8). In addition, in a recent study of White
teachers at a high school with predominantly Latina/o students, Marx (2008) found that
many teachers held stereotypical and deficit views of Latina/o students.
Negative school experiences are another barrier that Latina/o students face. In a
survey of Latina/o students, Martinez et al. (2004) found that 50% were victims or
witnesses of acts of discrimination. In fact, Latina/o students reported that they were
more likely to experience barriers than their nonminority counterparts. Even Latina/o
doctoral students experience adverse treatment. For example, Gonzalez (2007) highlighted the struggle that Latina students face in their doctoral studies, including minimal support to conduct research regarding Latina issues, institutional racism, and low
expectations from professors. Furthermore, in a personal account of a Latina doctoral student, Rosales (2006) described racist comments from her professors, which
influenced her feelings of marginalization. In summary, the literature investigating
educators beliefs about Latina/o students supports the premise that some educators
underestimate Latina/o students academic potential (Cavazos, Cavazos, Hinojosa, &
Silva, 2009).

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Although research has uncovered personal and social factors that help Latina/o
students succeed academically, less attention has been focused on coping responses
that help students overcome challenges. According to Folkman and Lazarus (1980),
Coping processes refer to what the person actually thinks and does in a particular encounter and to changes in these efforts as the encounter unfolds during a
single episode or across episodes that are in some sense part of the common
stressful encounter. (p. 224)
In higher education, research indicates that students use various coping responses to
manage stressful situations. In their study with minority college students, Phinney and
Haas (2003) identified five coping responses and the number of times each response was
used to overcome stressful situations during an academic semester: (a) proactive, 45;
(b) seek support, 23; (c) distancing/avoidance, 8; (d) acceptance, 7; and (e) positive
reframing, 2. First, a proactive approach includes activities that are designed to solve
problems. For example, if a student is faced with an academic crisis, he or she takes
specific action to solve the problem. Second, seeking support is the desire to resolve
the matter by including others, such as friends or teachers. These individuals may provide support via comfort and/or encouragement. Third, distancing/avoidance involves
either neglecting the problem to relax or neglecting the problem with the intent of
forgetting it. Fourth, acceptance involves dealing with the fact that the problem is part
of life. This coping response acknowledges that some events are beyond ones control.
Finally, positive reframing refers to an optimistic mentality and self-belief that one
will overcome an obstacle (Phinney & Haas, 2003).
In a study with Mexican American college students, Garcia-Vazquez, Vazquez, and
Huang (1998) found that students used active coping when faced with challenges. Of
the nine possible coping responses from which students could choose, the two most
supported responses were taking a planned action (i.e., proactive) and talking with
friends (i.e., seeking support), while two others, that is, drawing on past experiences
and seeking assistance from a professional counselor, were among the least supported.
In another study with Latina college students, Gloria, Castellanos, and Orozco (2005)
found that a planned action was used by most participants, while two of the least supported coping responses included seeking professional help from a counselor and not
worrying about a stressful situation. In addition, Edwards and Romero (2008) found
that Mexican American youth used active coping responses when faced with discriminatory experiences in an academic setting.
Although research has provided insight into Latina/o students coping responses,
most studies have been quantitative, thereby forcing participants to answer from a
predetermined set of responses. A qualitative research design may augment the existing literature base by allowing Latina/o students to elaborate on the coping responses
that they use to overcome challenges. As noted by Gloria et al. (2005), In addition,
to using standardized measures of coping responses that are circumscribed, allowing

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students to identify their coping systems and responses and differentiating types of
coping responses is warranted (p. 178).

Method
Participants
Eleven Latina/o college students (eight were female) from a Hispanic-Serving Institution
participated in the current study. Each participant (a) self-identified as Chicana/o, Hispanic,
or Latina/o; (b) had a grade point average of 2.9 or higher; and (c) was enrolled as an
undergraduate or graduate student at the time of data collection. These individuals academic credentials included student-of-the-week recognition, research fellowships at the
doctoral level, Archer Fellowship (i.e., internship program in Washington, DC) recipients, 4-year university scholarships, leadership positions in student organizations, and
student leadership awards. Also, nine of these participants grew up in low-income households and were the first in their family to attend college. Each participant was assigned a
pseudonym. To facilitate participant recruitment, the lead author sent an e-mail to several
student organizations at this university and requested participation. Institutional Review
Board approval was obtained prior to contacting any potential participants.

Procedure
This study included an individual in-person interview with each participant. Interviews
were conducted during the fall 2007 semester. The lead author conducted all 11 interviews, and interviews were audio recorded with participant consent.

Data Collection and Analysis

The lead author transcribed each interview. Data analysis did not occur until each
interview was transcribed to prevent premature themes from developing. Data analysis
proceeded as follows. First, three reviewers used open-coding data analysis (Strauss
& Corbin, 1998) to identify sentences that had specific meaning units. Second, each
reviewer used the constant comparative method to compare and contrast emergent
themes from one transcript with themes from subsequent transcripts (Corbin & Strauss,
2008). Third, each reviewer organized meaning units into a thematic hierarchy. Finally,
multiple meetings were held to discuss any discrepancies regarding a meaning units
assignment to a respective theme and each reviewers thematic hierarchy.

Trustworthiness
Numerous steps were followed to improve this studys trustworthiness. First, successful Latina/o college students were purposefully recruited to participate in the

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current study. Because of their ability to successfully navigate a pathway to higher

education, these participants may provide valuable insight into how successful
Latina/o students cope with challenges. Second, three researchers with their previous experiences analyzed the participants responses. And finally, it is the opinion of
the lead author that he was able to establish rapport with each participant because
of his experience as a Latino college student and his ability to identify with each
participants experience during the interviews. In addition, although the findings
from the current study are derived from the same participants as those who participated in Cavazos et al.s (2010) study, the findings presented herein focus on a different construct. That is, as opposed to resiliency, the current study involves effective
coping responses.

Results
Findings are presented within the following themes: positive reframing, acceptance,
self-talk, maintaining focus on final goals, using low expectations as motivation, selfreflection, taking action, and seeking support. In addition to each factor, all 11 participants cited multiple coping responses, thereby providing evidence that such strategies
are often used in combination to deal with perceived barriers to success. Also, it is
important to note that there were not any identifiable differences in the coping responses
between undergraduate and graduate students.

Positive Reframing
Positive reframing included the existence of a self-belief that one can overcome challenges and efforts to retain positive cognitions. Joey discussed the importance of staying positive in the face of adversity when he said, I try to be really optimistic. I try
to stay optimistic. He also talked about the satisfaction he derives from putting in
effort when working toward a difficult task. He said, If you have a situation, why run
away from it if you can tackle it. If you fail, at least you know you tried your best
in trying to tackle it. In addition, Michelle described the importance of self-confidence
in relation to remaining positive. She provided this representative quote: Think
positively. That helps a lot because if I keep saying no I cant do it, then of course
Im not going to be able to do it.

Acceptance
Most participants reported that they believed challenges were inevitable and part of
life. That is, they accepted that everyone encounters challenges. Moreover, many
participants mentioned that this strategy provided them with the hope that their situation would become better. It is also important to mention that participants learned this
tactic via their parents messages.

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Sarah, who described an experience in which she lived in a one-bedroom house

without running water, appeared to understand that obstacles were part of life when
she said,
There is an end to all of this struggle, and I understand that not everything is
going to be flowers and rainbows. But life is like that. Life is like that, and I think
I know a lot about life. I know its not a Cinderella book.
Jessica echoed this sentiment when she said, Life isnt pink, life is tough. In addition, Michelle shared her belief about obstacles with the following, All of these
obstacles come, but I think about it, they are going to go. As easy as they came or as
hard as they came, they are going to go.

Self-Talk
Many participants cited positive self-talk as an important coping response to remain
optimistic and understand that challenges are part of life. Participants provided specific examples of the self-talk they used to overcome lifes challenges. For instance,
Omar described how self-talk helped him manage stressful situations. He reported,
When I go through an obstacle, I tell myself that other people are going through the
exact same thing and that Im not the only person struggling. Michelle provided the
following example of the self-talk that she used to stay positive in difficult situations:
Think positively. That helps a lot because if I keep saying, No I cant do it,
then of course Im not going to be able to do it. But if I keep telling myself, Yes
I can get through this, and Yes I can do this, its only going to help me, and
in the end I will get through it.

Maintaining Focus on Final Goals

Most participants reported that staying focused on their goals helped them overcome
challenges. Moreover, they mentioned that staying focused on their final goals provided motivation to overcome obstacles. Although Sarah faced numerous obstacles to
higher educationsuch as work and extracurricular activitiesshe never lost sight of
her ultimate goals of obtaining a college degree and becoming an attorney. She shared,
Theres a finish line and the finish line is the goal that I achieve. Michelle also
reported that she always kept her final goal of becoming an educator in the front of
her mind. She said, And you have to keep your eye on the final finish line. In addition, despite confronting academic challenges, such as failing a college course, Omar
reported that he never lost focus on his goal of becoming a medical doctor. He said,
Because if you see your dreams and you see what you want to do, you can do it.
Again it goes back to I can see my dream, its in my mind, and I know I want to get

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there. Furthermore, Jessica talked about not giving up because of her desire to help
children in the future. She shared,
And whenever Im having a moment of weakness, I like to think of what
I want to do, which is help children, be a child advocate. And I think of these
children, that if I give up right now, then Im not going to be able to help them
in the future.

Using Low Expectations as Motivation

Some participants mentioned an experience in which they were told explicitly by an
educator that they could not succeed. Such experiences were mentioned as providing motivation to overcome perceived stereotypes from educators. For example,
although Denise received numerous recognitions as a doctoral student, including
prestigious research fellowships, she described an experience in which her college
professor expressed low expectations of her academic abilities. Denise provided the
following story,
And my freshmen year, I was taking biology, chemistry, calculus, and rhetoric.
I started off Pre-Med, and I was having some trouble with it [calculus]. I went
to tutoring to try and get it, and my professor told me, You will never get it
because not only are you female, but youre Latina. This is my freshmen year
away from home, away from a group of people, and talk about a blow.
Denise described how she coped with these types of situations:
I have whats called a little box. Whenever somebody does something like that
and something to me, I say, Okay, Im just going to put you in my little box
and put my box back here in my pocket. And Im going to show you. To me,
it just adds fuels to the fire!
Cristina also described how negative experiences motivate her to succeed when she
said, Usually when something bad happens to me, it kind of pushes me up instead of
pushing me down. In addition, Joey mentioned that his high school principal prevented him from enrolling in college-preparatory classes, which he perceived as low
expectations. Although low expectations could have prevented him from pursuing a
college degree (Martinez, 2003), he eventually received a 4-year university scholarship. Joey described how he overcame this challenge with the following,
But sometimes I stopped and I would think about it. I always wanted to ask her
[the principal], Why do you limit me? I never asked her that, but I never gave
a crap of what she thought. I know I can do it, and I did it!

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Self-Reflection
Many participants cited self-reflection as an important coping response. It appeared
that reflection allowed participants to analyze and learn from their life experiences.
When asked how she overcame challenges, Jessica provided the following, I look
forward to those little moments where I reflect on what Ive done, where I compare
the before and after. I take a lot of pleasure in that. Furthermore, Rick, who was a
doctoral student at the time of data collection, mentioned the term resiliency and how
he learned about this concept. He shared,
The word resiliency was something that I came to understand and appreciate
after I was teaching, after I was working with students. Thats a term that I really
came to terms with when I became a teacher and I became a counselor and
I understood what that term really meant because I had lived it. I couldnt see
myself using that term when I was 18 because I didnt know I was doing it at
the time, but I couldnt really reflect on it. Without knowing it, those were things
that I was doing growing up, that we were doing as a family, surviving week to
week, month to month, going to school.

Taking Action
Participants reported that they took specific actions when presented with challenges.
Such actions included taking initiative to find ones own education, resigning from
employment to focus on academics, or seeking support from family and friends. One
of the challenges that Michael mentioned involved the quality of his education. That
is, he reported that he received low expectations from others in high school when he
was placed in a noncollege preparatory track. He described how he overcame this
obstacle with the following story:
A lot of it was my self-motivation to learn because I wasnt being taught. I wanted
to learn more and I knew I wasnt being challenged I never got a consistent
education I pressured myself to read. I would read my sisters social studies
books, history books, and try to get into the science and math as well.
Joey also talked about academic obstacles and his response of taking action. He
reported that he was at risk for failing several college classes due to employment and
involvement in extracurricular activities. He provided the following account of his
coping response:
I quit my work, and I focused, and I did. I got 100s in my assignments that
were worth 25%. That helped me up. Instead of being an 80, it went up to an 88.
I focused more, and if you have a situation, why run away from it if you can
tackle it?

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Seeking Support
Some participants mentioned the importance of seeking support when faced with challenges. For example, Rick mentioned social support as one of the coping responses that
helped him survive his first year of college. He stated,
My teachers from school, my brothers and sisters that had been through college
already, so they had already kind of been through and they would tell me, its
not like they sat and helped me, they just kind of said, Dont give up. Do it.
Furthermore, Denise talked about the importance of her family. Although Denise
wanted to give up after a negative experience with a college professor, her family
offered words of encouragement. She said,
I hated it my first year and I was going to come back and say, Forget it. Im
done. But they [parents] said, Youre going to go. I was like, Its too hard
and my dad was like, No, thats why its good. Youre going to go, and youre
going to succeed, and youre going to show them [college professors].
And finally, Michael mentioned that in times of stress and adversity he sought support from religion. He provided the following perspective,
It was more like I appealed a lot to God. It was more of a friendship that I had
with God that I found. And I found wisdom and motivation through God. Thats
what pushed me through in the hardest challenges that I had.

Discussion
The current study included interviews with 11 Latina/o college students to provide
insight into the kinds of coping responses they used to overcome challenges. In
regards to the eight themes identified during data analysis (i.e., positive reframing,
acceptance, self-talk, maintaining focus on final goals, using low expectations as
motivation, self-reflection, taking action, and seeking support), participants appeared
to implement these in a manner that is congruent with positive psychology (Seligman
& Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). These participants provided evidence that they are highly
active in their own lives, and although their experiences were at times challenging,
they found effective ways to adapt to their circumstances.
Of practical importance, the results herein indicate that Latina/o students continue
to perceive barriers to higher education. Overtly expressed low expectations, gender
and race-based stereotypes, and lack of college information were mentioned as academic challenges. Participants from the current study described the coping responses
that they used to overcome these and other challenges. Second, many statements submitted in this study indicate that these participants believe that these factors do not

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work in isolation from each other, but are used in combination to resolve barriers to
success. For example, participants described positive self-talk that helped them understand and accept challenges as part of the process. Also, research has illustrated the
prevalence of low expectations in the Latina/o community (e.g., Cavazos & Cavazos,
2010), and that many Latina/o students may internalize these negative beliefs and
decide not to pursue higher education (Martinez, 2003). In contrast, this studys participants found a way to use the low expectations of others as motivation to succeed
academically. Finally, almost all of the participants in the current study described the
importance of maintaining focus on their final goals. When faced with challenges they
mentioned that they stayed focused on helping others in the future, being a positive
role model for their siblings, or wanting to produce change. It appears likely that maintaining a clear focus on ones goals provided these participants with motivation to
persevere in the face of challenges. Thus, it is clear that various combinations of the
eight strategies were used by these participants to resolve the barriers to success.

Implications for Practice

Based on this studys findings, there are a number of implications for practice. First,
college professors and high school teachers are encouraged to use assignments that
allow Latina/o students to reflect on their personal and academic experiences. Such
assignments could include (a) writing about obstacles to higher education, (b) identifying personal factors that have facilitated their academic success, and (c) recognizing
their idiosyncratic coping responses that allowed them to overcome challenges. For
example, Kamimura (2006) described the benefits of self-reflection on his development as a doctoral student, including (a) recognizing the importance of family and
(b) discovering motivation to persevere. In summary, it is possible that writing may
allow students to reflect on their resiliency, maintain focus on their final goals and
discover motivation to persist.
Counselors also can play a facilitative role by disseminating college information to
all Latina/o students, thus helping to offset the real or imagined perception of low
expectations from educators. Regarding students who are not expected to pursue higher
education, it is possible that some students seek out their own information more frequently than do other students, or simply take no further action. In the current study,
Michael reported finding ways to prepare for higher education by reading books that
were not assigned by his teachers. Since limited information is a barrier that impedes
Latina/o students from accessing higher education (Immerwahr, 2003; Zalaquett,
2006), it is important that counselors help Latina/o students take action when they
might be otherwise faced with lack of information.

Recommendations for Future Research

Future studies might determine if employing self-reflection, self-talk, using low
expectations from school faculty as motivation, and maintaining focus on final goals

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as treatment variables in an experimental design would confirm the inductive results

that emerged from the current study. Such studies might also reveal interactive
effects between various strategies used in combination. In addition, factor analytic
studies might also shed light on the extent to which these eight strategies can be seen
as independent of each other. They may overlap, or interact as largely independent
factors. Only through quantitative analyses could the relative independence and
effects of these strategies be ascertained. Another area of future research includes differences in coping responses between undergraduate and graduate Latina/o students.

Limitations of Study
Because 11 Latina/o students were interviewed for the current study, the generalizability of these findings is clearly limited. However, this studys findings are consistent with previous literature regarding Latina/o students and coping, that is, taking a
plan of action and seeking support from others (Edwards & Romero, 2008; Gloria
et al., 2005). Also, as cited above, the independence of, and possible interactions
between, these strategies remains to be determined through quantitative models. Finally,
the fact that there were only three male participants may have not provided adequate
data to discern any gender differences herein.

Conclusion
The current study augments the existing literature by identifying eight coping
responses that helped Latina/o students pursue and succeed in higher education.
Furthermore, research may indicate whether adopting these strategies in isolation or
in combination could result in higher academic achievement for the general Latina/o
population.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Alyssa G. Cavazos and Luti Vela for their comments and suggestions concerning this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or
publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) declared no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.

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Bios
Javier Cavazos Jr. is a doctoral student in the Counselor Education program at Texas A&M
University-Corpus Christi. He has co-authored 12 peer reviewed articles, mostly focusing on factors that help Latina/o students pursue and succeed in higher education. He currently works as a
Seminar leader in the First-Year Learning Communities Program at Texas A&M UniversityCorpus Christi.
Michael B. Johnson is an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at The University
of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He graduated with a PhD in Counseling Psychology from Florida
State University in 2006 and is a licensed psychologist in Texas and Georgia. Within the four
years following his graduation he has authored 19 peer reviewed articles and book chapters,
mostly focusing on aspects of sport psychology, and presented his work 23 times, often at
national conferences such as the APA and the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.
Dr. Johnsons research involves athletes, students, and counseling issues.
Gregory Scott Sparrow is a professor, psychotherapist, spiritual mentor, fly fishing guide, and
author who lives in Arroyo City, Texas. Dr. Sparrow is currently an Assistant Professor in the
graduate counseling program at the University of Texas-Pan American, where he teaches
courses in group therapy, marriage and family therapy, counseling theories, and practicum.

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