Poster #7 - Identifying Patterns and Predictors of College Success for Minority College Students from the South Side of Chicago

• In Event: 3-005 - Poster Session 3 during Lunch

Abstract

The transition from high school to college is fraught with challenges for students of all backgrounds, including adapting to new peer groups, new academic systems, and greater expectations of independent learning. College students from ethnic minority groups and from high-poverty urban neighborhoods often face several additional challenges, such as adapting to cultural norms (especially at predominantly-white institutions), financial stressors, and cultural bias on campus. Tufts University researchers sought to describe the relationship between hypothesized predictors of academic success related to campus life (e.g., financial stress, cultural fit, study habits, seeking university support resources) and academic success outcomes (e.g., GPA and earned course credits).
The current study is based on a two-part design: Part A includes a 20-item longitudinal survey, offered to college students over a four-month period. Part B includes a 10-item, daily version of the same survey, administered over the same 120 day period to a small subset of the same college student sample. The goal of this two-part design was to observe the developmental process in a nomothetic, variable-centered analysis with Part A, and with an idiographic, person-centered analysis for Part B of the study. As such, we were able to describe the relationships between variables, as well as a more nuanced understanding of developmental pathways of specific college students.
The sample included recent high school alumni (all of whom are current college students) from high poverty urban areas who had attended a college preparatory charter high school in Chicago, IL. About 98% of the participants were African-American. The 20-item survey was administered to 168 first- and second-year college students at three waves of testing over 120 days. In addition, the 10-item survey was administered to eight first-year college students daily over the same 120 days in the fall of 2017.
Preliminary findings indicate that Cultural Fit and Study Habits were the strongest predictors of academic success – both with regard to outcomes defined by Earned Course Credits and GPA. Staff Interactions (i.e., seeking help from university resources) positively predicted Culture, Study Habits, and Socio Emotional Well-being, r(110) = .48, .32, and .38 respectively, p < .01. Further analyses, such as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, latent class analysis, and latent trajectory analysis were included in the study to illuminate more specific patterns regarding the structure of, and relationships among, the predictors of college academic success. Idiographic data illuminate that both stability and volatility are reflected in different aspects of the college experience. We will discuss the implications of our findings for predicting college success among students in general, as well as how those principles may be personalized to improve support systems for individual college students.

Author

• Paul Chase, Tufts University
  Presenting Author