White Privilege Awareness and Openness to Diversity: The Moderating Role of Gender for White, Christian Students

Promoting student openness to diversity is an important educational goal of colleges and universities; however, scholars have noted the association between openness to diversity and an awareness of racial privilege has not been investigated (Cabrera, 2014). We examined how awareness of White privilege and religious variables predicted openness to diversity in a sample of 500 White, Christian, college students. We drew from multiple identity theory (Abes, Jones, & McEwen, 2007; Jones & McEwen, 2000) with particular attention to how privilege may function across race, gender, and religion. In particular, we hypothesized that gender would moderate the association between awareness of White privilege and openness to diversity. Based on multiple regression analyses, we found awareness of White privilege was positively associated with openness to diversity. Moreover, gender moderated the association such that the association was positive and significant for women, and nonsignificant for men. Results also indicated openness to diversity was positively associated with religious attendance and negatively associated with religious conservatism. Overall, findings show awareness of White privilege and religious variables were associated with openness to diversity and that gender served as a moderator.