Racial/Ethnic Variations in the Consequences of Religious Participation for Academic Achievement at Elite Colleges and Universities

Research has not investigated how much of the previously documented positive association between high school religious service attendance and college grades is mediated by campus religious group participation. Nor do we know whether campus religious group involvement is an important mediator for black and Hispanic students who experience grade-lowering stereotype threat at historically white institutions. Path analyses conducted on a racially diverse sample of students at 28 elite institutions indicate that religious group involvement in college mediates the positive relationship between high school service attendance and college grades for Hispanic and to some extent black students. For Asian and white students, high school service attendance is positively associated with grades net of religious group involvement on campus. Asians frequently attending high school services on average earn a grade-point average of 0.12 points above Asians who never attended, net of controls.