Peer reviewed
ERIC Number: EJ703795
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 36
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-1546
EISSN: N/A
First-Generation College Students: Additional Evidence on College Experiences and Outcomes
Pascarella, Ernest T.; Pierson, Christopher T.; Wolniak, Gregory C.; Terenzini, Patrick T.
Journal of Higher Education, v75 n3 p249 May-Jun 2004
The growing demographic diversity of the under-graduate student body in American postsecondary education has been well documented over an extended period of time. One result of this increased diversity is the substantial number of "first-generation" college students from families where neither parent had more than a high-school education. For example, using results from the National Center for Education Statistics Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, Choy (2001) points out that in 1995-96, 34% of students entering the nation's four-year institutions and 53% of students starting at two-year colleges were first-generation students. The present study sought to expand the understanding of how first-generation students experience college and benefit from it in a more comprehensive analysis of the National Study of Student Learning data that followed individuals through the second and third years of college. Specifically, the study had three purposes. First, it sought to estimate net differences between first-generation and other college students along various dimensions of their academic and nonacademic experience of college. Second, it estimated the net difference between first-generation college students and their peers in select cognitive, psychosocial, and status attainment outcomes. These included standardized measures of science reasoning and writing skills at the end of the second year, standardized measures of reading comprehension and critical thinking at the end of the third year, as well as measures of openness to diversity and challenge, learning for self-understanding, internal locus of control, preference for higher-order cognitive activities, and educational degree plans at the end of the second and third years of college. Third, the study sought to determine if the specific academic and nonacademic experiences influencing cognitive and psychosocial outcomes differed in magnitude for first-generation versus other college students. The study sample comprised students who participated in the National Study of Student Learning (NSSL), a federally funded, longitudinal study of college student experiences and outcomes. The NSSL followed samples of students from 18 four-year colleges for a period of three years. Its major purpose was to assess the factors influencing students' learning and cognitive development during college. The study was initiated in the Fall of 1992 and continued through the spring of 1995.
Descriptors: First Generation College Students, Thinking Skills, Outcomes of Education, Comparative Analysis, Writing Skills, Locus of Control, Socioeconomic Status, Standardized Tests, Longitudinal Studies, Reading Comprehension
Ohio State University Press, 180 Pressey Hall, 1070 Carmack Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1002. Web site: http://www.ohiostatepress.org.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A