Social Capital and Academic Motivation Among First-Generation Community College Students

Existing research on social capital in college has focused on low-income, ethnic minority adolescents, finding that low-SES and first-gen ethnic minority students struggle in accessing beneficial social capital on campus. However, the academic and social adjustment of first-gen, low-income White students is an understudied phenomenon. Therefore, this study examined how White, working-class, first-gen community college students managed to integrate themselves, both socially and academically, into college. Overall, first-gen, working-class, White community college students face many obstacles to earning postsecondary degrees, and social capital in the form of relationships with institutional agents on campus may be able to help them further their academic goals.

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