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An Initiative Of NASPA and The Suder Foundation

Research & Policy

Dedicated first-generation research allows for evidence-based decision-making that is critical to student success. This section highlights both foundational research and recent scholarship that informs understanding of the student experience, institutional approaches to programming, and identification of supports and barriers for first-generation students. Timely updates on public policy discussions shaping first-generation student success are also provided. In addition to the filters below, please utilize the “search” bar in the top, right corner to search by keyword, author name, or publication title.

The first edition of the inaugural Journal of First-generation Student Success is slated for release in April 2021. Learn more about the Journal.

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Tailoring Programs to Best Support Minoritized Student Success

This article draws on a five-year mixed methods study and focuses on the way staff tailor support within a comprehensive college transition program to meet the needs of low-income, first-generation, and racially minoritized students by adapting programmatic offerings and requirements to fit students’ multifaceted needs.

Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, & Practice / November 2020
group of students with notebooks
Incoming First Year, First-gen College Student Worries About College

This narrative inquiry study analyzed 190 first-generation students’ worries about the first year of college as surveyed upon admission to a four-year university.

Journal of Student Success and Retention / November 2020
Uncovering the information literacy skills of first-generation students

This study assessed the information literacy gains of students who participated in the pilot of a new instructional model, in which librarians developed and taught a first-year composition course aimed at first-generation, provisionally-admitted college students.

The Journal of Academic Librarianship / October 2020
First-Gen PhDs Navigating Institutional Power in Early Careers (Vol. 2)

Scholars write of socialization to the professoriate through the complex lens of intersectional identities of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability and social class.

Van Galen & Sablan / October 2020
A comparison of teaching practices focused on student skills

This study uses the 2016 National Geoscience Faculty Survey to compare self-reported teaching practices used by instructors in introductory geoscience courses that support the development of students’ quantitative, data analysis, problem-based, communication, and metacognitive skills in 2YCs and 4YCs.

Journal of Geoscience Education / October 2020
The Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA)

The Health Sciences and Technology Academy’s, (HSTA) goals are to increase college attendance of African American, financially disadvantaged, first generation college and rural Appalachian youth and increase health-care providers and STEM professionals in underserved communities.

Journal of STEM Outreach / October 2020
latino college student happy on laptop
The Impact of Social Support on Latino/a First-Gen Students

This study highlights Latino/a first-generation students by investigating the associations of stress, depression, and social isolation with family and friend social support in their college experiences.

Journal of Hispanic Higher Education / October 2020
Students around table
A Longitudinal Study of First-Gen Students' Stress and Depression

The author examine stress exposure and depressive symptoms among first and continuing-generation college students before and during college.

Social Forces / October 2020
High school counselors cut
Successful First‐Gen Graduates and Implications for Counselors

This article describes a qualitative study with seven first‐generation college graduates who went on to complete graduate school and are now working in colleges and universities as counselors and counselor educators.

Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development / October 2020
Students’ Challenges Understood with Expectancy Value Theory

The purpose of this study is to examine new perspectives of FG students that may further explain hindrances to retention and achievement.

Teaching of Psychology / October 2020
Parental Education, Faculty Interaction, and Summer Experiences

The purpose of this study is to better understand the ways that students’ cultural and social capital relate to their participation in undergraduate research, internships, paid work, or volunteering after the first year of college.

Innovative Higher Education / October 2020
UT student by water
University Enrollment among First‐Generation, Rural College Goers

The author draws from 20 in‐depth interviews with first‐generation, rural students to analyze support structures and the strategies these students employed to bypass class, race and geographic barriers to college enrollment.

Rural Sociology / October 2020
Simplifying Student Aid

In this brief, the authors review issues central to simplifying the Pell grant system and then discuss strategies for strengthening the system for allocating aid from other sources.

Urban Institute Center on Education Data and Policy / October 2020
Marisel Herrera Studying Abroad
Educational Travel for First-Generation Students

This article examines the unique challenges and opportunities for first-generation and low-income students in educational travel programs.

Teaching Sociology / October 2020
Microaggressions and the Marginalization of First-Generation Faculty

This article explores the authors’ experiences of marginalization as first-generation faculty, using personal narratives marked by microaggressions that highlight implicit bias related to (1) professional assimilation and (2) competency development.

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education / October 2020
black female red scrunchie
Identity development of Black first-gen college women

This paper quantifies differences between first- and continuing-generation students in specific forms of cultural capital, including parental involvement, autonomy support, and how often students seek out the advice and support of their parents.

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education / October 2020
Benefits of a Three- Week Cycling Expedition for First-Gen Students

This exploratory study examined the benefits of participating in a three-week, multi-state bicycling trip for eight adolescents who participated in a first-generation, college-bound program.

Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership / October 2020
black male jean jacket
Influence of Internship Participation on HBCU Academic Performance

The relationship between college grades and internship participation for Black business majors at HBCUs was examined in this study.

Journal of African American Studies / September 2020