Psychology Faculty and Students Publish Article on First Generation College Students

A new article, written by RU faculty and students, appears in the November 2012 issue of the Journal of Research in Higher Education. This study offers a new way of thinking about first-generation college students. The authors--Dr. Jeff Aspelmeier, doctoral candidate Michael Love, undergraduate alumnus Lauren McGill, Dr. Ann Elliott, and Dr. Tom Pierce--report the results of data collected from over 300 students at Radford University. Contrary to the popular belief that first-generation students perform more poorly in college, their study shows that there is very little direct association between being a first-generation student and strugling in college. Rather, the authors suggest that the relationsihp is more complex. Some first-generation students do have difficulty in college. However, an equal number seem to do quite well in college; outperforming their continuing generation peers. The abstract is presented below.