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

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.

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Getting College Students Back on Track

Journal of College Student Retention Research Theory & Practice ◽

10.1177/1521025116670208 ◽

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.

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

Teachers College Record ◽

10.1177/016146811411601003 ◽

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.

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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 ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0246929 ◽

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.

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

10.31234/osf.io/dgmf7 ◽

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.

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Development and Evaluation of the Inventory of New College Student Adjustment

Journal of College Student Retention Research Theory & Practice ◽

10.1177/1521025118759755 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 425-440 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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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