Peers’ Strength-Based Approaches Bridge Students’ Marginalized Identities and Future Goals

• In Event: New Advances in Asset-Based Interventions in Educational Settings

Abstract

Theoretical Background
A foundational objective of education is to provide a space for students to explore and work toward their future goals. Historically speaking, however, schools have failed to meet this objective as racially and economically marginalized students navigate academic contexts that frequently view their identities as inimical to their success (Salazar, 2013). Researchers have sought to help students contend with such deficit-based notions through developing a variety of programs focused on supporting them throughout their journeys toward their future goals. The Pathways intervention, for example, draws on identity-based motivation theory to forge positive connections between students’ current educational experiences and their personal and professional goals (Oyserman & Destin, 2010). Although such programs have been shown to successfully promote students’ persistence and achievement, emerging lines of work have highlighted the importance of challenging deficit-based notions more directly through encouraging academic contexts to adopt alternative strength-based approaches that recognize the valuable skills and resources that students gain as a direct factor of their otherwise marginalized identities (Silverman et al., 2023). The current paper merges these insights to identify novel avenues for advancing educational equity. Specifically, we share the results of three studies demonstrating the powerful role that peers and their strength-based approaches can play in supporting marginalized students as they pursue future goals.

Methods
The current studies were conducted with racially and/or economically marginalized high school (Study 1) and university (Studies 2 and 3) students (N=894; Observations=1,776). Studies 1 and 2 experimentally tested the effects of providing students with opportunities to engage with peers as they discussed how their marginalized identities helped them achieve their future goals (i.e., peers who adopted strength-based approaches) relative to established programs for buttressing student success, including the Pathways intervention. Study 3 used propensity score matching techniques to examine the longitudinal consequences of a strength-based peer mentorship program centered on encouraging students to collaboratively reflect on how they can apply the skills that they gained from their marginalized identities to achieve personal and professional goals.

Results and Significance
Studies 1 and 2 provide causal evidence that having even brief opportunities to engage with peers who take strength-based approaches has a range of benefits for racially and economically marginalized students. In line with the predictions made by identity-based motivation theory, these opportunities not only led students to feel more empowered and less anxious about the future, but also nearly doubled the number of times they sought out help from peers and other key figures in their academic contexts during the school year relative to the Pathways intervention and other established programs. Study 3 extended these findings longitudinally. Across three years of data collection, students who participated in the strength-based peer mentorship program earned grade-point-averages that were 13% higher and were three times less likely to withdraw from university compared to students in the matched control group (βs=.18-.46, ps=.031-.0001). Together, the current paper contributes to the budding field of empirical work demonstrating the value of infusing academic contexts with strength-based approaches to sustainably promote educational equity.

Authors

• David M. Silverman, Northwestern University

• Ivan A. Hernandez, San Diego State University

• Josiah Rosario, Northwestern University

• Mesmin Destin, Northwestern University