Independently Fitting In: Affirming Independence Improves First-Generation Students' Academic Performance

• In Event: 49.067 - Innovation in Research: Motivation Interventions in Education

Abstract

First-generation college students earn lower grades, have higher drop-out rates, and worry more about whether or not they belong in college than their continuing-generation students peers. One source of first-generation students’ belonging uncertainty is the mismatch between their interdependent motivations for attending college, and the independent structure that characterizes traditional American colleges and universities. Given that interventions targeted at first-generation students have proven successful when these academic background concerns are alleviated, we examined the effects of ostensibly reducing the cultural mismatch between first-generation students’ motivations for attending college and higher education’s institutional norms. Specifically, we found that when first-generation students affirm their independence (via a values affirmation intervention), their concerns about their academic background diminish and their academic performance benefits.

Authors

• Yoi Tibbetts, University of Wisconsin

• Elizabeth Ann Canning, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Jilana Boston, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Janet S. Hyde, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Judith Harackiewicz, University of Wisconsin