Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2005 Family relationships and college adjustment of first- generation college students Deborah Ann Baker DeWall Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at:https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of theHigher Education and Teaching Commons, and theStudent Counseling and Personnel Services Commons Recommended Citation DeWall, Deborah Ann Baker, "Family relationships and college adjustment of first-generation college students " (2005).Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 1231. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/1231 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please [email protected]. Family relationships and college adjustment of first-generation college students by Deborah Ann Baker DeWall A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Education Program of Study Committee: John Littrell, Major Professor Nancy Evans Doug Gruenewald William Poston Norman Scott Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2005 UMI Number: 3172208 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. 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For the Major Program iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT v INTRODUCTION 1 Purpose of Study 2 Family Relationship Variable 4 First Generation Variable 7 Prior Academic Achievement and Psychological Coping Variables 10 Hypotheses of Study 11 Summary 15 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 19 Family Relationship Variable 19 Psychological Separation 20 Description 20 Review of Research Studies 21 Parental Attachment 24 Description and Theory 24 Review of Research Studies 25 Psychological Separation and Parental Attachment Combined 28 Family Cohesion 30 Description and Theory 30 Review of Research Studies 31 Summary 35 First Generation Variable 37 Description 37 Review of Research Studies 39 Summary 46 Prior Academic Achievement and Psychological Coping Variables 49 Description 49 Prior Academic Achievement 49 Psychological Coping 49 Review of Research Studies 50 Summary 53 METHODS 54 Participants 54 Procedure 55 Measures 57 Prior Academic Achievement 57 Psychological Coping 58 Family Relationship 60 College Adjustment 62 Design and Analyses 64 iv RESULTS 68 Preliminary Analyses 69 Principal Analyses 70 Bivariate Results 70 Hypothesis 1 72 Hierarchical Regression Analyses 73 Hypothesis 2 74 Hypothesis 3 76 Hypothesis 4 77 Post-hoc Analyses 81 Discussion 88 CONCLUSIONS 94 Implications 98 Limitations 103 Future Research 105 APPENDIX A. REQUEST FOR PARTICIPATION 107 APPENDIX B. INFORMED CONSENT... 109 APPENDIX C. QUESTIONNAIRE DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION 111 REFERENCES 112 V ABSTRACT This study explored the impact of family relationship dynamics on college student adjustment measures for 61 first-year first-generation college students. Students volunteered to complete a self-report questionnaire during their second semester of college, measuring psychological coping, family relationships, and academic, social, personal-emotional, and overall college adjustment. Actual student end-of-year and first-semester grade point average (GPA) and high school rank were also obtained. Hierarchical regression analysis results indicated that positive family relationship dynamics were predictive of positive personal-emotional college adjustment over and above that accounted for by prior academic achievement and psychological coping. However, the amount of additional explained variance was only 3%. Family relationship interaction was not associated with academic or social adjustment outcomes. Psychological coping provided a significant main effect, after partialing out prior achievement, for student social, academic, personal-emotional, and overall adjustment. Lower negative mood was associated with higher adjustment. Student prior academic achievement was also positively related to academic adjustment, overall adjustment and student end-of-year GPA. Both prior academic achievement and psychological coping explained a high percentage of the variance in adjustment outcomes for this study, showing the need to control for these variables in future college adjustment research. This research points to student mood and emotional coping as an important area of institutional intervention for first-year first-generation students following their first semester of college. Since psychological coping was found to provide a substantial amount of vi explained variance in college student adjustment, student academic support programs need to be designed to assist students in identifying current mood and level of functioning, individual coping resources, and ways of maintaining a positive attitude and self-image. An emphasis on affective coping skills, important relationship connections and activities that promote self- esteem and a sense of confidence will help students understand their college situation in a way that supports their ability to manage it successfully and accomplish their goals. 1 INTRODUCTION Adjusting to the college transition process is a challenge for all students entering the higher education system. However, students who represent the first generation in their family going to college face additional hurdles to successfully obtaining their college degrees. While traditional students make a more or less unconscious decision to go to college as part of an always known expectation, first-generation students make a conscious choice to break with family tradition in going to college. For them, making such a change represents intergenerational and personal difficulties greater than the usual academic and social transition issues faced by all college students (Olenchak & Hebert, 2002; Terenzini et al., 1994). They must learn to adapt to two different cultures: their world of family and friends at home and their new college culture. Tensions result in the family when young adults take on a new culture and direction than the one traditionally adopted by their family members. First- generation students often find that family and friends at home do not understand their academic challenges and thus experience conflict regarding the changes being made in their lives. They must find ways to renegotiate this student-parent interaction in order to successfully persist to graduation (London, 1989, 1992, 1996; Mitchell, 1997; Olenchak & Hebert, 2002; Terenzini et al., 1994). Family systems theory posits that there is a mutual reciprocity between family members that impacts not only each individual member, but also the family system as a whole. Interactions between family members influence each member and the entire family environment. Each family member's adjustment and functioning affects the quality of the overall family system, and these family relationship dynamics, in turn, impact each member's 2 level of coping and adjustment. Because of this reciprocity, individual members' ability to adjust to new stressors and utilize coping resources can be positively influenced by a supportive family environment (Moos & Moos, 1994). In stressful or unfamiliar situations, such as going off to college for first-generation students, the family dynamics and relationship interactions, then, may be an important determinant in adjustment level and success for these students. As an increasing number of first-generation students are afforded the opportunity to attend higher education institutions, it will become necessary for these institutions to understand the struggles experienced by first-generation students and to put into place supports and interventions to assist them in being successful. Purpose of Study Colleges and universities wanting to develop strategies for assisting students to succeed need to know that unique family dynamic issues may play a role in success for first- generation students. Qualitative studies (London, 1989, 1992, 1996; Mitchell, 1997; Olenchak & Hebert, 2002; Terenzini et al., 1994) have pointed to family dynamic difficulties for these students when attending college. The purpose of the present research is to explore in detail what impact the family has on the academic and personal adjustment of first-generation college students. With this increased knowledge, higher education institutions could then develop interventions that buffer negative effects of strained family relationships for these students. College counseling center staff could also pay special attention to the nature of the family relationship dynamics for students having problems transitioning to the college environment and assist these students in developing ways to work out family conflicts and find alternative supports as needed (Kenny & Donaldson, 1992).