Institutional penalty: mentoring, service, perceived discrimination and its impacts on the health and academic careers of Latino faculty

ABSTRACT

Institutional ethnoracial taxation increases work stress and reduces research productivity among Mexican American and Puerto Rican faculty. Latinos are a heterogenous group, yet little is known about differences in taxation, discrimination experiences and health by race, ethnicity, and nativity. This study explores three questions: Are there differences between URM (historically underrepresented) and non-URM Latinos in: 1) demographic factors, 2) taxation experiences and 3) physical and depressive symptoms and role overload? Survey respondents included 134 Mexican American, 76 Puerto Rican, and 108 non-URM Latino faculty. URM respondents are significantly less likely to report white race, more likely to report racial/ethnic discrimination, and more likely to report joint appointments compared to non-URM faculty. Almost 25% of respondents report clinical depressive symptoms. Disproportionate combinations of taxation from service, administrative demands and discrimination without institutional supports constitute an “Institutional Penalty.” Reducing taxation demands requires institutional equity agendas to support research productivity, promotion, and retention.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity taxation
• underrepresented Latino faculty
• higher education
• physical and mental well-being
• mentoring

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The term “Latino” includes individuals from about 20 countries who may be of mixed races including White, Black, Mestizo, or Indigenous (González Burchard et al. 2005). Despite being used by the Census Bureau, both “Hispanic” and “Latino” are disputed terms, because not all self-identified Latino persons have Spanish ancestry or experienced the historic colonial status and economic/social impacts due to their race or indigeneity. For consistency unless specifically noted, we use the term Latino regardless of gender.

2 Traditionally and historically underrepresented has many differing definitions. In this paper it refers to Latino groups who have been denied access and/or suffered past intergenerational institutional discrimination in the United States and includes Mexican American/Chicanos and Puerto Ricans.

3 “Other Hispanic” (either US or foreign-born) include those who report origination in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean excluding Puerto Rico. “Other Hispanic” was used in this study as the identifier of self-reported identity. Other Hispanic and non-URM Latino are used interchangeably.

4 Professional schools included business, social work, accounting, public policy, journalism, law, library science.

5 Mentoring data are not shown. These data are available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Maryland Tier 1 seed grants, Division of Research, Faculty Incentive Program, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation: [Grant Number 214.0277]; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: [Grant Number #68480].