First-generation college students' academic and social involvement towards degree completion
- Author
- Park, Hyunju
- Published
- [University Park, Pennsylvania] : Pennsylvania State University, 2020.
- Physical Description
- 1 electronic document
- Additional Creators
- Cheslock, John Jesse, 1972-
Access Online
- etda.libraries.psu.edu , Connect to this object online.
- Graduate Program
- Restrictions on Access
- Open Access.
- Summary
- First-generation students--those who are the first of their families to attend college--are much less likely to complete a bachelor's degree at four-year institutions than other students. Discovering the cause for this gap is key in supporting these students and helping them attain their degrees. By doing so, colleges and universities would better serve diverse ethnic communities, provide an education centered in equity and excellence, and present opportunities for social mobility and societal advancements. While copious amounts of past research examined the effect of activity involvement on student development and learning outcomes generally, not enough research specifically and comprehensively focuses on the effect of activity involvement on degree completion and attrition for first-generation students. This study, therefore, examines the link between the bachelor's degree completion rate of first-generation students and their academic and social activities. Special attention is paid to out-of-class interactions with faculty, academic advisors, and peers in these students' first and third years of college. The guiding research questions are (a) how does bachelor's degree completion vary by first-generation status; (b) how does student involvement in academic and social activities vary by first-generation status; and (c) how does the effect of involvement in these activities on degree completion vary by parental education group? For each of these three questions, I examined the relationships of the stated variables and to what extent they are driven by between-institution relationships and within-institution relationships. I employed the restricted-use data of the National Center for Education Statistics, Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Survey 2004--2009 (BPS:04/09) to analyze student-level variables in order to answer these questions. In addition to this nationally representative dataset, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System was used for institutional-level variables. Econometric multilevel models included pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), random-effects, fixed-effects, and between-effects models were run to examine the stated research questions. The major findings are as follows: The first-generation status itself is a risk factor for graduation, even with the controls of student demographics and precollege achievement across institutions. The potential difference in graduation rates between first-generation and continuing-generation students diminishes after considering precollege achievement especially in fixed-effects models. The first-generation status robustly affects students' involvement in academic and social activities outside the classroom. First generation students are much more likely to enroll at institutions that generally have lower levels of academic activity involvement. For social activity involvement, differences occur within institution as first-generation students have lower levels of involvement than other students at their institution. First-generation students' interactions significantly differ within an institution, especially when the interactions are with their peers. This is supported by the results of one of their academic activities. Status as a first-generation student robustly predicts attendance in study groups, unlike other academic interactions with faculty and academic advisors. The first-generation student group shows that involvement in their first-year social activities and third-year academic activities are significantly associated with their success in obtaining a bachelor's degree after six years. The current study illustrates the extent to which and when activities in college can lead first-generation students to successful degree completion. The results from examinations with multilevel regression models provide more detailed information in relation to the institutional level of academic and social involvement through college agents and peer groups.
- Other Subject(s)
- Genre(s)
- Dissertation Note
- Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University 2020.
- Technical Details
- The full text of the dissertation is available as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file ; Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view the file.
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