61.054 - Challenges and Opportunities: Exploring First-Generation College Students' Lived Experiences and Interventions to Support Their Success

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

First-generation college students face a unique set of motivational challenges in higher education. In this symposium, we explore the lived experiences of first-generation college students and report cutting-edge research on interventions to promote positive educational outcomes for this important population. These studies employ diverse methodologies (including experience sampling, interviews, laboratory experiments, and large-scale randomized controlled trials) and draw from multiple theoretical frameworks (expectancy-value, cultural mismatch, and social belonging). Findings suggest that the potential for mismatch between first-generation college students’ values and the norms of higher education can impact these students’ outcomes in a variety of ways across educational settings. This can create challenges for first-generation college students but also provides multiple levers for intervention to support their success.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Motivation in Education

Chairs

• Elizabeth Ann Canning, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Stacy J. Priniski, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Papers

• Feeling Like an Imposter: Competition and the Classroom Experiences and Performance of First-Generation College Students - Elizabeth Ann Canning, Indiana University - Bloomington; Mary C. Murphy, Indiana University

• Addressing the Cultural Transition to College for First-Generation College Students - Rebecca Covarrubias, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Designing Utility-Value Interventions for First-Generation College Students - Stacy J. Priniski, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Tanja Skiljevic, The University of Wisconsin - Madison; Judith Harackiewicz, University of Wisconsin

• Brief Social Belonging Intervention for First-Year Students at a Land-Grant University: Does Modality Matter? - Xiao-Yin Chen, University of Kentucky; Ellen L. Usher, University of Kentucky; Christia Spears Brown, University of Kentucky; Calah Ford, University of Kentucky