Closing the Social-Class Achievement Gap

College students who do not have parents with 4-year degrees (first-generation students) earn lower grades and encounter more obstacles to success than do students who have at least one parent with a 4-year degree (continuing-generation students). In the study reported here, we tested a novel intervention designed to reduce this social-class achievement gap with a randomized controlled trial (N = 168). Using senior college students’ real-life stories, we conducted a difference-education intervention with incoming students about how their diverse backgrounds can shape what they experience in college. Compared with a standard intervention that provided similar stories of college adjustment without highlighting students’ different backgrounds, the difference-education intervention eliminated the social-class achievement gap by increasing first-generation students’ tendency to seek out college resources (e.g., meeting with professors) and, in turn, improving their end-of-year grade point averages. The difference-education intervention also improved the college transition for all students on numerous psychosocial outcomes (e.g., mental health and engagement).

[1]  Jennifer L. Engle,et al.  Straight from the Source: What Works for First-Generation College Students. , 2006 .

[2]  Melissa J. Williams,et al.  Biological conceptions of race and the motivation to cross racial boundaries. , 2008, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  Mardy T. Eimers,et al.  Minority and Nonminority Adjustment to College: Differences or Similarities? , 1997 .

[4]  J. Ostrove,et al.  Social Class and Belonging: Implications for College Adjustment , 2007 .

[5]  D. Oyserman,et al.  From Assets to School Outcomes , 2009, Psychological science.

[6]  Rebecca K Delaney,et al.  National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States , 2014, International journal of aging & human development.

[7]  J. Jost,et al.  Group-based dominance and opposition to equality as independent predictors of self-esteem, ethnocentrism, and social policy attitudes among african americans and european americans , 2000 .

[8]  Grace Kao,et al.  Asian Americans as Model Minorities? A Look at Their Academic Performance , 1995, American Journal of Education.

[9]  Daphna Oyserman,et al.  Identity-Based Motivation: Implications for Intervention , 2010, The Counseling psychologist.

[10]  J. R. Landis,et al.  The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. , 1977, Biometrics.

[11]  Laura E. Buffardi,et al.  "What about me?" Perceptions of exclusion and whites' reactions to multiculturalism. , 2011, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  Stephanie A. Fryberg,et al.  Unseen disadvantage: how American universities' focus on independence undermines the academic performance of first-generation college students. , 2012, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[13]  Gregory C. Wolniak,et al.  First-Generation College Students , 2004 .

[14]  R. Kessler,et al.  Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress , 2002, Psychological Medicine.

[15]  Geoffrey L. Cohen,et al.  A question of belonging: race, social fit, and achievement. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  Mark H. Davis.  Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. , 1983 .

[17]  E. M. Tobin,et al.  Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education , 2005 .

[18]  Cindy Brantmeier,et al.  What about me?: Individual self-assessment by skill and level of language instruction , 2012 .

[19]  Valerie Purdie-Vaughns,et al.  Journal of Experimental Psychology : General Breaking the Cycle of Mistrust : Wise Interventions to Provide Critical Feedback Across the Racial Divide , 2013 .

[20]  S. Fiske,et al.  Introduction: A wide-angle lens on the psychology of social class. , 2012 .

[21]  E. Finkel,et al.  Middle class and marginal? Socioeconomic status, stigma, and self-regulation at an elite university. , 2011, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  Donald E. Heller.  Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education , 2007 .

[23]  Stephanie A. Fryberg,et al.  Cultural models of education in American Indian, Asian American and European American contexts , 2007 .

[24]  Valerie Purdie-Vaughns,et al.  Deflecting the trajectory and changing the narrative: how self-affirmation affects academic performance and motivation under identity threat. , 2013, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[25]  Geoffrey L. Cohen,et al.  Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention , 2006, Science.

[26]  N. Denson.  Do Curricular and Cocurricular Diversity Activities Influence Racial Bias? A Meta-Analysis , 2009 .

[27]  Gregory M. Walton,et al.  A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students , 2011, Science.

[28]  P. Gurin,et al.  Dialogue Across Difference: Practice, Theory, and Research on Intergroup Dialogue , 2013 .

[29]  Jeannie Brown Leonard,et al.  Living–Learning Programs and First-Generation College Students’ Academic and Social Transition to College , 2007 .

[30]  Stephanie A. Fryberg,et al.  Social class disparities in health and education: reducing inequality by applying a sociocultural self model of behavior. , 2012, Psychological review.

[31]  Harold R. Kerbo.  The Classless Society , 2000 .

[32]  Marvin A. Titus.  Understanding college degree completion of students with low socioeconomic status: The Influence of the Institutional Financial Context , 2006 .

[33]  R. Murnane,et al.  Whither Opportunity?: Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children's Life Chances , 2011 .

[34]  Lisa S. Blackwell,et al.  Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: a longitudinal study and an intervention. , 2007, Child development.

[35]  K. E. Barron,et al.  Predicting Success in College: A Longitudinal Study of Achievement Goals and Ability Measures as Predictors of Interest and Performance From Freshman Year Through Graduation , 2002 .

[36]  H. Markus,et al.  Colorblindness as a barrier to inclusion : Assimilation and nonimmigrant minorities , 2000 .

[37]  J. Harackiewicz,et al.  Closing the Social Class Achievement Gap for First-Generation Students in Undergraduate Biology. , 2014, Journal of educational psychology.

[38]  Timothy D. Wilson,et al.  Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change , 2011 .

[39]  Selcuk R. Sirin.  Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research , 2005 .

[40]  H. Markus,et al.  A cultural mismatch: Independent cultural norms produce greater increases in cortisol and more negative emotions among first-generation college students , 2012 .

[41]  Claude M. Steele,et al.  Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us , 2010 .

[42]  J. Calarco.  “I Need Help!” Social Class and Children’s Help-Seeking in Elementary School , 2011 .

[43]  Alexandra F. Corning,et al.  Individual Orientation Toward Engagement in Social Action , 2002 .

[44]  Linda J. Sax,et al.  Student–Faculty Interaction in Research Universities: Differences by Student Gender, Race, Social Class, and First-Generation Status , 2009 .

[45]  C. Sherbourne,et al.  The MOS social support survey. , 1991, Social science & medicine.

[46]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models , 2008, Behavior research methods.

[47]  R. Clarke.  What about me? , 1995, Healthcare financial management : journal of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

[48]  P. Gurin,et al.  Getting to the What, How, and Why of Diversity on Campus , 2006 .

[49]  Margie E. Lachman,et al.  The sense of control as a moderator of social class differences in health and well-being. , 1998 .