Aspirations, Ability, and Support: Consumers’ Perceptions of Attending College

Abstract

Research examines aspirations and plans for college, perceptions of social support and acceptance, and perceived intellectual and emotional capacity for college reported by 80 adults with coping with serious mental illness. The role of consumers' age, prior college experience, hospitalization history, and feelings of personal loss due to mental illness in accounting for their views about college is examined. In general, consumers expressed strong aspirations for college, provided a positive assessment of their intellectual abilities, and mixed feelings about their emotional capacity to attend college. Participants were generally very optimistic about the level of acceptance from faculty and students and support from family and friends if they were to attend college. Amount of personal loss expressed by consumers accounted for a significant amount of variance in their reported aspirations and perceived capacity for college beyond that of age, prior college experience, and number of recent psychiatric hospitalizations. Participants' perceptions of support and acceptance were not related to total number of reported hospitalizations, but were positively related to the number of hospitalizations reported in the past year.