Perceived Parental and Teacher Influences on Rural Students' Choices about College Education

• In Event: 49.044 - Beyond the Big City: Rural Students and College Access

Abstract

We examined how students’ values and expectations about postsecondary education, along with their parents’ and teachers’ beliefs, were associated with students’ own plans for college. Using path analysis we found that students who would qualify as first-generation college students were more likely to perceive college as important and to have a greater sense of their own competence when they felt that their parents valued higher education and believed in their children's academic capabilities, which in turn significantly increased the likelihood that students would express an intention to go to college. However, these same sorts of perceptions were not related to college plans in the case of students whose parents had a college education.

Authors

• Ui Jeong Moon, University of Maryland - College Park

• Heather A. Bouchey, Vermont Agency of Education