Publication Date
2020
Journal or Book Title
Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, & Practice
Abstract
Institutions increasingly use first-generation categorizations to provide support to students. In this study, we sought to understand how students make meaning of their first-generation status by conducting a series of focus groups with 54 participants. Our findings reveal that students saw first-generation status as an organizational and familial identity rather than a social identities. This status was connected to alterity and social distance that was most salient in comparison to continuing-generation peers. Our recommendations include re-examining the role of first- generation specific programming on campus, creating opportunities for meaning-making, supporting students within changing family dynamics, and exploring the interaction between first-generation status and other marginalized identities.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025120913302
Pages
1-28
License
UMass Amherst Open Access Policy
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Bettencourt, Genia; Mansour, Koboul E.; Hedayet, Mujtaba; Feraud-King, Patricia Tita; Stephens, Kat J.; Tejada, Miguel M.; and Kimball, Ezekiel, "Is first-gen an identity? How first-generation college students make meaning of institutional and familial constructs of self" (2020). Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, & Practice. 36.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025120913302