“Listen to the Feedback of Students”: First-Generation College Students Voice Inequalities in Schooling Brought on by the COVID-19 Pandemic
- 16 December 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice
- Vol. 26 (1), 151-175
- https://doi.org/10.1177/15210251211066302
Abstract
In March 2020, the higher-education community faced one of its largest disruptions to date with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing campuses to close their doors to thousands of students. The university-wide closures prompted a collaboration between researchers and college administrators to assess the impact of COVID-19 on First-Generation College Students (FGCS). The team surveyed 659 FGCS across five U.S. universities to assess the ways in which the pandemic exacerbated already existing inequalities students faced in their persistence to graduate from college. The team used the social cognitive career theory as a conceptual framework for analysis. Our findings revealed that when respondents compared their life before COVID-19 with their present state, FGCS were less likely to perceive they had enough money to return to college, felt overwhelmed and lonely by added stress, and were more likely to see an increase in family responsibilities.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Science Foundation Social Science Extreme Events Research (SSEER) network and the CONVERGE facility at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder
- North Carolina Scholars Strategy Network
- the Faculty of Color and Indigenous Faculty at UNC-CH
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Career Aspirations and the First Generation Student: Unraveling the Layers With Social Cognitive Career TheoryJournal of College Student Development, 2016
- Social cognitive predictors of first- and non-first-generation college students’ academic and life satisfaction.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2015
- Opportunities, Obstacles, and OptionsJournal of Career Development, 2013
- Social cognitive predictors of adjustment to engineering majors across gender and race/ethnicityJournal of Vocational Behavior, 2013
- Social cognitive model of career self-management: Toward a unifying view of adaptive career behavior across the life span.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2013
- The Impact of Family Support on the Success of Black Men at an Historically Black University: Affirming the Revision of Tinto’s TheoryJournal of College Student Development, 2011
- Social cognitive predictors of the interests and choices of computing majors: Applicability to underrepresented studentsJournal of Vocational Behavior, 2011
- Mexican American middle school students' goal intentions in mathematics and science: A test of social cognitive career theory.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2007
- Toward a Cultural Advancement of Tinto's TheoryThe Review of Higher Education, 2006
- Toward a Unifying Social Cognitive Theory of Career and Academic Interest, Choice, and PerformanceJournal of Vocational Behavior, 1994