Striving for Balance: How Parents and Institutions Foster First-Generation College Students' Sense of Independence

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Outcomes of Individual, Familial, and Institutional Involvement

Abstract

This longitudinal multiple case study of the parents of first-generation college students and staff members from nine institutions focuses on the ways in which institutions and families encourage development related to students’ independence. The results revealed four major themes, including: 1) the importance of parents and staff working together to better serve students, 2) the process of independence development, 3) the balance of involvement as being influential in fostering students’ independence, and 4) frustrations in the parent and university relationship, in terms of gaps in support and resources, and parents taking on students’ frustrations. The results deepen our understanding of how higher education can better partner with the parents of first-generation college students.

Authors

• Casandra Elena Harper, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Judy Marquez Kiyama, The University of Arizona

• Alice Eunjung Lee, The University of Arizona