| Susan Dumais
Louisiana State University
Boosters and barriers to first generation college students' academic and early labor market outcomes
FINAL REPORT
First-generation students are those whose parents did not attend college. In this project a framework of capital is used to study first-generation college-going. The author studied five forms of capital: economic, cultural, human, social, and informational. The effects of capital were examined on enrollment in bachelor's degree programs, undergraduate grade point average, attainment of a bachelor's degree, and professional employment. The author interacted each form of capital with first-generation status to determine if capital was more beneficial for first-generation students (a model of mobility), non first-generation students (a model of reproduction), or for both groups equally.
Overall, first-generation students had less of every type of capital than non first-generation students. First-generation students who enrolled or graduated from four-year schools were more likely to have capital than the first-generation students who did not, but they still lagged behind the levels of capital possessed by their non first-generation peers.
First generation status had a negative affect on the outcome variables when each of the forms of capital was analyzed separately, but the negative effect of first-generation status disappeared in the final models for college enrollment, bachelor's degree attainment, and professional occupation when all five types of capital were included together. The effect of first-generation status actually became positive in the final model for undergraduate grade point average. It thus appears that the forms of capital can erase the negative effects that first-generation status has on academic outcomes.
In separate models, each of the five types of capital (economic, cultural, human, social, and informational) was positively and significantly associated with four-year college enrollment, undergraduate grade point average, and bachelor's degree attainment; only human, social, and informational capital were significantly associated with professional job status. In models analyzing all five types of capital together, cultural capital did not significantly affect any of the dependent variables, economic and informational capital did not affect grade point average, and economic and social capital did not affect professional job status. When the variables were standardized, social capital had the strongest effect on college enrollment and graduation, and human capital had the strongest effects on undergraduate grade point average and professional employment.
Social capital interacted negatively with first-generation status when the outcomes were graduation and grade point average, lending support to the model of reproduction. Informational capital, however, interacted positively with first-generation status for the outcomes of college enrollment and graduation, indicating a model of mobility.
The findings suggest that middle-and high-school programs should be designed to (1) develop students' social capital by linking them to peers and adults who hold high expectations for them; (2) push students to build their skills and enroll in challenging courses at school; (3) incorporate learning about college-going (both the application process , and the transition to college life itself). These programs would be beneficial to developing the capital of all students, but especially first-generation students, who are lower in these forms of capital from the start. Furthermore, students and their parents need to be made fully aware of all the financial aid possibilities available. Colleges should consider expanding their financial aid -- especially grants -- and actively recruiting first-generation students.
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