Asplund, L. K. (2009). Understanding the role of faith in decisions to persist in college for first-generation Black male students. Christian Perspectives in Education, 3(1), 1-15.

While the admissions rate for Black students is now equivalent to that of White students, there is still a large gap in persistence and graduation rates. Among Black students there is a significant graduation rate gap between Black male and female students. The writer used a qualitative research design to make preliminary observations of the decisions to persist in college of a small sample of first-generation African American male students. As students in a Christian university, the dominant role of faith in decisions to persist emerged as an important theme.

Full article can be found here:

http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=cpe