Promoting Low-Income College Student Success Through Peer Mentoring: A Mixed-Methods Examination

• In Event: Money Matters: Low-Income Students, Financial Aid, and Work

Abstract

Low-income students face cultural and social challenges navigating college environments that privilege middle- and upper-class norms, knowledge, and values; these challenges lead to difficulty transitioning to college and disparities in low-income student success relative to their higher-income counterparts. Peer mentoring is one popular strategy intended to increase low-income student success, where an older peer transfers critical knowledge needed to successfully transition into and navigate college, recognizing that students from low-income backgrounds often have not had the same college preparation opportunities as their higher-income counterparts and are more likely to face culturally and socially unfamiliar college environments. This longitudinal, mixed-methods study explores whether and why peer mentoring impacts low-income college student success as measured by five psychosocial outcomes and college GPA.

Authors

• Joseph Kitchen, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author

• KC Culver, University of Alabama
  Presenting Author

• Gwendelyn Rivera, University of California - Santa Cruz
  Presenting Author

• Zoë Corwin, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author