A Diversity Ideology Intervention: Multiculturalism Reduces the Racial Achievement Gap

2020 ◽  
pp. 194855062093822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah J. Birnbaum ◽  
Nicole M. Stephens ◽  
Sarah S. M. Townsend ◽  
MarYam G. Hamedani
Keyword(s):  
Achievement Gap ◽  
Academic Outcomes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Racial Achievement Gap ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
First Year College ◽  
First Year College Students ◽  
Racial Achievement

In the United States, underrepresented racial minority (URM) students continue to face psychological barriers that undermine their achievement and fuel disparities in academic outcomes. In the current research, we tested whether a multicultural ideology intervention could improve URM students’ grade point averages (GPAs) during the first 2 years of college and thereby reduce the racial achievement gap. Specifically, first-year college students ( N = 407) read a diversity statement that represented the schools’ diversity ideology in terms of either multiculturalism or colorblindness. URM students who read a multicultural diversity statement earned higher GPAs 2 years later compared to those who read a colorblind diversity statement. Furthermore, they earned higher GPAs compared to a nonparticipant campus-wide control group. The current study is the first to demonstrate that multiculturalism can increase the long-term academic outcomes of URM students in college.

scholarly journals Beyond Books: The Extended Academic Benefits of Library Use for First-Year College Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krista M. Soria ◽  
Jan Fransen ◽  
Shane Nackerud
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Academic Outcomes ◽  
Academic Engagement ◽  
Academic Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Reference Services ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Academic Benefits ◽  
First Year College Students

The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether there are relationships between first-year college students’ use of academic libraries and four academic outcomes: academic engagement, engagement in scholarly activities, academic skills development, and grade point average. The results of regression analyses suggest students’ use of books (collection loans, e-books, and interlibrary loans) and web-based services (database, journal, and library website logins) had the most positive and significant relationships with academic outcomes. Students’ use of reference services was positively associated with their academic engagement and academic skills, while enrollment in library courses was positively associated with grade point averages.

Getting College Students Back on Track

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-368
Author(s):  
Corinne M. Kodama ◽  
Cheon-Woo Han ◽  
Tom Moss ◽  
Brittany Myers ◽  
Susan P. Farruggia
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Academic Preparation ◽  
First Year ◽  
College Graduation ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Summer Bridge ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
College Life ◽  
First Year College ◽  
First Year College Students

The present study examines the outcomes of a 5-week summer bridge writing program at a Midwestern, urban, public university designed to provide remedial instruction for incoming first-year college students, approximately 500 students annually for 7 years. Regression results showed that program participation was a positive, significant predictor on the outcomes of 6- and 4-year graduation, first-year earned credits, and first-year college grade point average, even after controlling for demographic and academic preparation variables. The combination of academic preparation and an introduction to the college experience helped to prepare students for college success. This institutionally funded program shows promise in addressing the remediation needs of students and preparing them for success in credit-bearing courses as well as college life in general, getting them on track for timely college graduation.

Precollege Exposure to Racial/Ethnic Difference and First-Year College Students’ Racial Attitudes

2014 ◽  
Vol 116 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Bowman ◽  
Dafina-Lazarus Stewart
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Racial Attitudes ◽  
Ethnic Difference ◽  
The United States ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Interracial Friendships ◽  
First Year College Students ◽  
Racial Ethnic

Background/Context Despite burgeoning racial and ethnic heterogeneity within the United States, many students grow up in racially homogeneous schools and neighborhoods. This lack of interracial interaction appears to play a substantial role in shaping students’ racial attitudes and world views upon entering college. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The aim of the study was to examine the relationships among multiple forms of precollege exposure to racial/ethnic diversity and racial attitudes (e.g., perceptions of workplace discrimination) upon entering college. Research Design A quantitative survey examined attitudes, precollege environments, and other indicators among 3,924 entering first-year college students (with approximately equal numbers of Asian Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites) at 28 U.S. colleges and universities. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted on the full sample as well as several racial/ethnic groups separately. Conclusions/Recommendations Findings indicated that exposure to racial/ethnic difference in students’ precollege neighborhoods and schools predict high school interracial friendships, which in turn predict their complex racial attitudes. The multigroup analyses further demonstrate that the relationships between interracial friendships and multiple racial attitudes are nonsignificant among White students, but significant for all other groups. These findings have implications for the promotion of meaningful curricular and cocurricular diversity interventions both before and during college.

First-Year College Students’ Time Use

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Thibodeaux ◽  
Aaron Deutsch ◽  
Anastasia Kitsantas ◽  
Adam Winsler
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Time Use ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
First Semester ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Self Regulated Learning ◽  
Regulated Learning ◽  
First Year College Students

How students manage their time is critical for academic performance and is an important component of self-regulated learning. The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships among first-year college students’ ( N = 589) time use, academic self-regulation, and target and actual grade point average (GPA) at three time points. Findings showed that students planned and spent less time on academics than socializing and work obligations in their first semester. Students generally planned to spend more time on academics in the second semester. Academic time use (planned and actual academic hours) related to higher self-regulated learning and target GPA in the first and second semester. Students who were farther away from their first-semester target lowered their second-semester target GPA instead of planning more time in academics. Students exceeding their target first-semester GPA planned to socialize more in the second semester. Orientation and transition programs that assist students may need to revisit time management and planning midway through the year to address potentially inadequate self-regulated learning in the first year of college.

scholarly journals Exploring the Predictive Value of the ACT Among First-Year College Students on Academic Probation

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tabitha Young Gast ◽  
Isaac Burt
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Academic Probation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Regression To The Mean ◽  
Act Scores ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Academic Improvement ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
First Year College ◽  
First Year College Students

This study explored the relationship between ACT scores and academic achievement among first-year college students on academic probation (n = 192) at a large southern university. Results suggest participants’ ACT scores did not correlate with second semester grade point averages (GPA). When GPAs were compared with ACT scores of the larger student body admitted during the same academic year, results indicated students on academic probation averaged significantly lower. However, comparisons with national averages suggest participants’ ACT scores demonstrated a regression to the mean. The implications this study has for retention, academic improvement, and academic counseling in higher education are discussed.

scholarly journals Potential differences between the political attitudes of people with same-sex parents and people with different-sex parents: An exploratory assessment of first-year college students

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0246929
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Flores ◽  
Maisy Morrison
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
College Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
First Year ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
First Year College ◽  
First Year College Students ◽  
Same Sex Parents

Children were often near the center of public debates about legal marriage recognition for same-sex couples. Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the case that resulted in legal same-sex marriage recognition, stressed the importance of these children as one of many factors compelling the opinion. Estimates indicated same-sex couples were raising 200,000 children in the United States. Children raised by same-sex couples may be politically socialized in distinct ways compared to children of different-sex couples because lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals tend to hold distinct and progressive political viewpoints on a wide variety of issues. What are the political attitudes of people with same-sex parents? In this exploratory study, we analyze a large, representative survey of first-year college students across the United States; we find few differences between people with same-sex and different-sex parents, and some of those differences may be attributable to households and respondent characteristics. When on the rare occasion a difference exists, we find that people with same-sex female parents are more progressive, but people with same-sex male parents are more conservative. Gender differences also emerged, with some distinctive patterns between males with same-sex parents and females with same-sex parents.

Do First-Year College Students' Expectations Align with their First-Year Experiences?

NASPA Journal ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua S. Smith ◽  
Ellen C Wertlieb
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Transition To College ◽  
First Year ◽  
Academic Expectations ◽  
Social Expectations ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
First Year College ◽  
First Year College Students ◽  
First Year Experiences

First-year college students’ expectations about "what college is like" do not always align with their actual experiences. This study examined 31 first-year students’ social and academic expectations and compared those expectations with students' experiences at the middle and end of their first year of college. Paired t tests revealed that students' academic and social expectations did not align with their first-year experiences. Academic and social expectations/experiences were not statistically significant predictors of first-year academic achievement. However, students with unrealistic high social or academic expectations had lower first-year grade point averages (GPAs) than students with average or below-average expectations. Recommendations for increasing high school and college collaboration to assist students with the transition to college are included.

scholarly journals Know Your Safe Drinking Skills: Adaptation Strategies for the College Effect

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Carolyn A. Lin ◽  
John L. Christensen ◽  
Anne Borsai Basaran
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Alcohol Prevention ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
College Life ◽  
First Year College ◽  
First Year College Students ◽  
Drinking Frequency

Objective: The current study investigates the effects of an alcohol-prevention program delivered to college students in a formal classroom setting. Participants: The sample comprised 231 first-year college students who enrolled in a multisection “First Year Experience” course at a large northeastern university in the United States. Method: A naturalistic experiment was conducted, with a baseline evaluation at the beginning of the semester and a post-experiment evaluation near the end of the semester. Results: Social drinking attitudes, proximal drinking norm and the college effect are significant predictors of pre- and post-intervention episodic drinking frequency. The intervention reduced episodic drinking frequency as well as perceived distal and proximal drinking norms. It also increased drinking attitudes and did not change perceived efficacy or drinking-outcome expectancies. Conclusions: Practitioners could consider implementing a similar intervention to allow students to learn and practice safe drinking skills in the first year of their college life.

scholarly journals Embracing me-time: Motivation for solitude during transition to college

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thuy-vy Thi Nguyen ◽  
Kaitlyn M. Werner ◽  
Bart Soenens
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Motivation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transition To College ◽  
First Year ◽  
College Life ◽  
Time Points ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Social Belonging ◽  
First Year College Students

The present research examined the role of university students’ motivation for spending time alone in their adjustment to college life, as well as the parenting correlates of students’ healthy motivation for solitude. Two studies were conducted on first-year college students in the United States (n = 147) and Canada (n = 223). In Study 1, data was collected at three different time points, separated by two-week intervals. In Study 2, data was collected at two different time points, separated by a month. The results revealed that, for those who reported perceiving lower social belonging, approaching solitary time for autonomous reasons was linked to greater self-esteem (Study 1), and greater sense of relatedness to others and lower loneliness (Study 2). These findings suggest that endorsing a healthy motivation for solitude is not necessarily indicative of social ill-being. Additionally, students’ autonomous motivation for spending time alone was associated with having parents that are autonomy supportive and that promote a sense of independence.

Development and Evaluation of the Inventory of New College Student Adjustment

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua C. Watson ◽  
A. Stephen Lenz
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
College Student ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Year ◽  
Student Adjustment ◽  
Confirmatory Factor Analyses ◽  
First Year College ◽  
College Student Adjustment ◽  
First Year College Students

The Inventory of New College Student Adjustment (INCA) was developed to assist college student personnel in assessing adjustment difficulties experienced by first-year college students. A sample of 474 first-year college students (282 women, 59%; 192 men, 41%) enrolled in a first-year seminar course at a medium-sized 4-year university in the central southern region of the United States completed the INCA. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed a two-factor scale explaining 47.17% of the variance in scores. Convergent validity analyses support the INCA as a sufficiently valid measure suitable for use as a brief screening tool in both research and practice settings.

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