First-Generation College Students Talk About Social Class Socialization and Identity: A Focus Group Study

The chapter explores the social construct, associated meanings, identities, and assumptions of social class. The chapter begins by offering basic definitions and possible responses to the material in the chapter. In exploring social class as social construct, the chapter considers the relation of social class to capitalism, and the ways that understanding social class is impeded by primary emphasis on financial resources and economic mobility. It explores how social class is not only about access to financial resources, but also related to stereotypes, hierarchy, social class culture, and other types of resources or capital (e.g., education, social networks, etc.). In exploring social class identity, the chapter identifies the tendency of many people to describe themselves as middle class and illustrates decreases in salience of formal social class identities as bases of self-understanding or social movements. Simultaneously, this section describes the continuing effects of social class on lived experience, health, and well-being. In exploring classism, the chapter differentiates between the experience of having or not having adequate resources and social class stereotypes, culture, and related experiences. It considers classism at individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels and explores these through the example of education. The chapter includes reflection exercises for readers to explore their assumptions and stereotypes about social class categories, their social class background and identity, their experiences of privilege and/or oppression related to both having or not having resources and being from specific social class cultures, and invites them to consider the experiences of those who are different from themselves.

This chapter shows that social class identities are integral to some of the most highly sexualized images produced in post-war Hollywood film. It considers the tools of intersectionality to analyze the juxtaposition of social class and gender identities that are integral to the construction of many sexual images. Social class is central to the filmic traditions often offered in feminist film literature as counterpoints to Laura Mulvey's sweeping statements. Depictions of sexuality in the 1946–1962 period reflected more general cultural concerns regarding gender, social class, race, and ethnicity. Moving to the areas of film noir and the star persona of Marilyn Monroe, the chapter explains that classed identities are integral to the depiction of female allure. In contrast to the Alfred Hitchcock's theory of allure, it focuses on a lower-class sexuality. With both Monroe and the film noir femme fatale, it is the quality of trash that excites.

Internet use and residents' social class identification: The social trust perspective.

This chapter examines the potential of collaborative digital storytelling production to deepen the social class identity of first-generation college students and to support the collective voice of first-generation students in discourse about educational equity on campus and beyond. First-generation college students occupy a distinctive social class position. Most, by far, are from poor and working-class backgrounds; their college ambitions are inextricably entangled with hopes for meritocratic social class mobility through success in school. Yet the odds are firmly against them: decades of evidence indicate that higher education replicates rather than eradicates inequalities. Absent substantive discourse about social class barriers within educational settings, first-generation students too often internalize struggles in college as evidence of personal failure. Instead, in the three-day digital storytelling workshops discussed in this chapter, first-generation students invest in collaborative digital storytelling for deepening and representing individual and collective social class identities. As they create agentive first-person stories that are simultaneously inwardly reflective and outward facing, the chapter considers what happens as stories – located at social class borders – become part of public discourse on their campuses and beyond.

Leadership learning through the lens of social class.

Biculturalism has typically been used as a framework to understand the experiences of people who move to new societies or who have multiple ethnic identities; we argue that first-generation college (FGC) students can also be thought of as bicultural as a function of social class. FGC students undergo adjustment to the middle-class culture of universities and face challenges negotiating different cultural identities. The present research demonstrated that FGC students are more likely to identify as bicultural and experience dissonance between home and school (Study 1), that integrated social class identities are linked to positive outcomes for FGC students during (Study 2) and after college (Study 3), and that these effects are due in part to reduced acculturative stress (Study 4). These findings suggest that integrating different class identities may be key to the success of FGC students.

Calls from the counseling literature have highlighted a need for the examination of intersections between marginalized identities and identities of social class. This article investigates the intersection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning (LGBTQQ) identity and social class. The authors review current literature and scholarship on these intersections, identify key issues between the intersection of these two identities, and discuss critical strategies for counselors to engage with the intersection of social class and LGBTQQ identities. Recommendations for counseling research, training, practice, and advocacy are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between subjective well-being, social class identity, and Self-rated health among older persons,. Focusing on the mediating role of health and the impact of epidemic infectious diseases on these relationships. Based on the 2018 and 2021 China General Social Survey (CGSS) databases, the data were screened, and processed. Using Stata17, we employed ordered probit regression to examine the relationships among variables and Bootstrap methods to assess mediation effects, and the CGSS data for 2018 and 2021 were compared and analyzed. Our results revealed that factors such as social class identity, health status, and personal income significantly positively impact older persons' subjective well-being (P<0.01). Notably, there was a partial mediating effect of health status between the subjective well-being of the elderly and social class identity. And findings showed that when older adults were affected by epidemic diseases, their subjective well-being, social class identity, and Self-rated health remained significantly positively correlated. Subjective well-being, social class identity. What is more noteworthy is that when affected by epidemic infectious diseases, older adults' subjective well-being, social class identity, and Self-rated health remained significantly positively correlated. The mediating role of self-rated health in older adults' subjective well-being and social class identity increased from 9.6% to 12.4%. In the face of epidemic infectious diseases, we need to pay more attention to the Self-rated health of the elderly, and the Chinese government should take effective measures to improve their health level, which will in turn improve the subjective well-being of the elderly and realize the goal of healthy aging.

Social class bicultural identity integration research demonstrates that integrated social class identities are linked with better health, well-being, and academic performance among first-generation students. Here, we demonstrate that exposure to college graduates in students’ home neighborhoods before college is positively related to higher social class bicultural identity integration (Study 1), that the effect of identity integration on academic performance is mediated by academic self-efficacy (Study 2), and that the effects of identity integration on acculturative stress, life satisfaction, and overall health outcomes observed at a large, public university replicated at selective, private universities (Study 3). This suggests that the identity integration framework is a useful theoretical lens to conceptualize and predict health and performance outcomes for first-generation students.

China's aging population is gradually increasing, and the health status of the elderly has become the focus of social attention. Education level is one of the important factors affecting the health status of the elderly. However, there are few studies on how education level specifically affects the health status of the elderly in China. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the influence path of education level on the health status of the elderly in China, and to further study the mediating effect of Internet use, health behavior and social class identity in this process. This study is based on the latest version of the Chinese General Social Survey data as the basis of empirical analysis. Through multiple linear regression analysis, structural equation model analysis, Bootstrap method and robustness test, the relationship between education level, Internet use, health behavior, social class identity and the health status of the elderly is verified. (1) Education level has a significant positive impact on the health status of the elderly in China (p < 0.05), which is, education level has a positive effect on the health status of the elderly in China. (2) Internet use, health behavior and social class identity have a significant mediating effect between education level and health status of Chinese elderly, and the mediating effect values are 0.024, 0.002 and 0.011, respectively. (3) Internet use, health behavior and social class identity play a chain mediating role in the impact of education level on the health status of the elderly, and the chain mediating effect value is 0.004. This study not only confirms the direct impact of education level on the health status of the elderly in China, but also reveals the indirect role of Internet use, healthy behavior and social class identity in this impact mechanism. These findings provide new perspectives and strategies for further improving the health status of the elderly in China.

Presidential Address, 2022-Dismantling Systemic Barriers: Re-Envisioning Equity and Inclusion.

British television comedy has often ridiculed the complexities and characteristics of social class structures and identities. In recent years, poor white socially marginalised groups, now popularly referred to as “chavs”, have become a prevalent comedy target. One of the most popular and controversial television “comedy chavs” is Little Britain's fictional teenage single mother, Vicky Pollard. This article examines the representation of Vicky Pollard in light of contemporary widespread abuse of the white working class. Highlighting the polysemic and ambivalent nature of Vicky Pollard's representation, the article argues that whilst Little Britain's characterisation of Vicky Pollard largely contributes to contemporary widespread demonisation of the working class, there are moments within Little Britain when a more sympathetic tone towards the poor working class may be read, and where chav identities are used to ridicule the pretensions, superficiality, and falsity of middle-class identities. The article concludes that television comedy has been, and continues to be, a significant vehicle through which serious concerns, anxieties, and questions about social class and class identities are discursively constructed and contested.

Current scholarly research on first generation college (FGC) students is concerned with attrition rates of these students and other ways institutions of higher education count FGC students. However, much of this research focuses on negative characteristics (e.g., at-risk, low income) often associated with the FGC student community. Not only do these reports exclude the success rates of FGC students, but they also overlook the other identities that these students experience, such as working class identity. We know little of how these students negotiate this identity in their communication with others and how this process affects their communication in college classrooms. Using relational dialectics theory, this study goes beyond examining how many FGC students succeed in school by providing an in-depth examination into the experiences of these students. It is important to understand how FGC students navigate higher education and what actions they take that they feel contribute towards their success in or withdrawal from college. This study identifies three tensions that emerge for FGC students: predictability-novelty, autonomy-connectedness, and openness-closedness. This study also analyzes the ways in which FGC students manage and negotiate these tensions. After discussing implications that these tensions have for FGC students, this study offers suggestions for students, educators, universities, and researchers to invite constructive ways to cope with these dialectical tensions as they emerge.

Objectives: This study investigated the relationship between informal lifelong learning (ILL) and subjective wellbeing (SWB) among Chinese older adults, focusing on potential psychosocial mechanisms. Method: Using 2017 China General Social Survey data, SPSS and PROCESS were applied to analyze relationships between ILL, hope, social class identity (SCI), and SWB. Hope was tested as a mediator, and SCIs (past, current, and change over time) were tested as moderators. Results: SWB positively correlated with ILL (0.284), hope (0.474), early-life SCI (0.194), current SCI (0.368), and SCI change (0.186). Hope partially mediated the relationship between ILL and SWB ( indirect effect = 0.316, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.012–0.646). Current SCI moderated ILL–SWB ( co efficient = 0.466, p &lt; .01) and hope-SWB ( coefficient = −0.064, p &lt; .01) relationships, while SCI change moderated hope-SWB ( coefficient = −0.058 , p &lt; .05). Conclusion: Older adults with lower current SCI or downward SCI mobility experience face inequities in accessing benefits related to ILL. Strategies such as “Nannagogy” and life-reviews are recommended to ameliorate these inequities.

This paper presents a review of scholarly work on social class identities (SCI) in second and foreign language (S/FL) educational contexts. Of the 94 studies identified, 31 were annotated. Thematic analysis was employed to identify trends elucidating where, what, and how SCI has been conceptualized, theorized, and methodologically designed. Inclusion criteria focused on SCI research in S/FL contexts, while studies examining SCI outside educational settings were excluded. Results indicate a slow-growing interest in SCI and critical theory, with a Europe-Western dominance. SCI has been approached as: a fixed category based on socioeconomic status determining educational and L2 learning factors; a performed sociocultural phenomenon grounded in individuals lived experiences; a process experienced by study-abroad and migrant individuals; and as an element of colonial difference. Research gaps include SCI examination in EFL contexts and from decolonial perspectives, highlighting the need for political action to subvert social inequalities and address colonial wounds related to socioeconomic issues.