Supporting College Persistence of Under-Represented Students through a Social Capital Intervention

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Background:
First-generation and underserved students are less likely than their continuing- generation peers to complete college (Chen & Carroll, 2005). Supportive social relationships at school have been associated with positive progress towards degree completion and retention (Ishitani, 2016; Stanton-Salazar, 2011). Traditional models of advising and mentoring may overlook students most in need of services (Alexitch, 2002); other research indicates that a web of support can be more beneficial than reliance on a single relationship (Hynes, 2015). This study reports findings from a qualitative interviews study at a large, public New England university with students who completed a one-credit course as part of an RCT to explore the role of social support and mentoring in the transition to college for first-generation and underserved students.

Methods:
A sub-sample (n=31) of participants in the larger RCT were selected to be interviewed, based on their post-intervention survey responses to measure of help-seeking. Students with positive, negative, and no change in self-reported help-seeking behaviors (10 from each group) were asked to participate in a semi-structured interview about how the course may have influenced their intention to seek help. Interviews were audio-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. A multi-step thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was conducted that involved initial coding of the transcripts and construction of narrative summaries to capture major themes within each interview. Two coders reviewed the coded interviews and narrative summaries to identify themes and contextualize the help-seeking behaviors of these students.

Findings:
Students from all three groups described seeking help from faculty/staff, family, supervisors, and friends, depending on the type of help needed. Many students attributed improved attitudes, increased confidence, and increased comfort with help-seeking for academic and vocational goals to participation in the course. Students reported the process of getting help was easier than expected once they found the right person to ask. Students also reported needing less help generally as they felt the course prepared them for challenges.
Barriers to help-seeking included a concern for “wasting time” of potential sources of help, being unsure of what help was needed, being introverted or shy, having medical conditions that made it harder to ask for help, encountering people who appeared unhelpful or less interested in helping, lack of time, and feeling it was too late to ask for help.

Implications:
Findings indicate that even among students who reported being less inclined to ask for help after the intervention, all students interviewed indicated that they felt more positively about seeking help after participating in the course. Given the close tie between connections on campus and retention of first generation and under-represented university students, this study indicates that interventions such as this course may serve to encourage students to make use of available campus resources. Further, these students’ experiences indicate that providing students with information about campus resources along with guidance about how to approach seeking out assistance when needed may boost students’ confidence to do so, which in turn could increase the likelihood that they will persist in school when challenges are encountered.

Authors

• John Paul Horn, California State University - East Bay
  Presenting Author

• Adrienne Young, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Meghan Rose Conlin, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Renee A Spencer, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Schwartz, Suffolk University
  Non-Presenting Author