Poster #231 - The Impact of a Brief Help-Seeking Intervention on First-Generation College Students’ Academic Outcomes

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Emerging adulthood is a unique time, as youth move from high school to college and learn to balance a desire for independence with the need for emotional and social support. Youth who are first in their family to attend college, or first-generation college students, face additional challenges not experienced by their more privileged peers. Compared to continuing-generation students, first-generation college students are twice as likely to leave college without earning a degree (Chen, 2005). Lower rates of retention may be, in part, due to the fact that first-generation college students experience significant disparities in social capital and in availability and nurturance of academic relationships. Differences in help-seeking attitudes and network orientation (i.e. previous help-seeking experiences and perceptions about help-seeking usefulness) may contribute to such disparities (e.g., Jenkins, Miyazaki, & Janosik, 2009). This longitudinal study examines potential differential effects between first generation and continuing generation college students for a brief intervention (Connected Scholars) designed to facilitate positive help seeking-attitudes and network orientation. Specifically, a moderated mediation model was used to test the conditional indirect effects of first-generation student status on the relationship between Connected Scholars and student outcomes (GPA and student-instructor relationships) through changes in student help-seeking attitudes and network orientation. Participants were 396 students in a summer remedial program from a Northeastern, urban, public university, of whom 65% were female, 91% were ethnic/racial minority, and 42% were first-generation college students. The study employed a 2 x 2 between-subjects quasi-experimental design for quantitative data. The comparison group included students in the 2014 summer cohort who received treatment-as-usual academic programming. The treatment group included students in the 2015 summer cohort who received the same academic programming components as the comparison group as well as the four-hour Connected Scholars intervention. Structural equation modeling was used to test the main study hypothesis of moderated mediation. Results indicated changes in students’ help-seeking avoidance partially accounted for the impact of the Connected Scholars intervention on GPA (ab = .05, 95% CI [.015, .105]), and changes in students’ help-seeking experiences partially accounted for the impact of the Connected Scholars intervention on students’ relationships with instructors (ab = .02, 95% CI [.005, .039]). First-generation college student status strengthened the indirect effect of the Connected Scholars intervention on student outcomes through changes in help-seeking avoidance (B = .07, 95% CI [.015, .155]), help-seeking experiences (B = .03, 95% CI [.004, .067]) and perceptions of help-seeking usefulness (B = .05, 95% CI [.013, .129]). These results indicate that a low-cost, brief intervention can have a meaningful impact on the social capital of underrepresented students, and can help to close achievement gaps in the first year of college. Such outcomes are promising, as institutions struggle to retain underrepresented college students beyond their second year of college enrollment. Further policy and practice implications are discussed.

Authors

• McKenna F Parnes, Suffolk University
  Presenting Author

• Sarah E.O. Schwartz, Suffolk University
  Non-Presenting Author