Abstract
In recent years, research has brought attention to the heterogeneity of resources that first-generation students bring with them to higher education and the factors that assist in these students’ social and academic adjustment to university life. However, few studies have focused on how these students’ early socialization and experiences over the life course influence their adjustment experiences to university. Drawing on Bourdieu’s habitus concept to explore the life histories of first-generation students at a midranked Swedish university, we identify three types of adjustment profiles—Adjusters, Strangers, and Outsiders—and highlight five key factors over the life course that explain why they differ: family resources, early social environment, educational experiences and opportunities, peers, and partners. Our findings suggest that class-related adjustment challenges in college can be traced to different levels of cultural capital acquired during first-generation students’ early socialization but also to capital acquired through sustained contact with cultural capital–abundant social environments throughout their life course, resulting in subtle but consequential habitus adaptations. This study extends previous research in the field by exploring a broader set of social contexts that can spur first-generation students’ cultural capital acquisition before college and facilitate their adjustment to higher education.
Highlights
In recent years, research has brought attention to the heterogeneity of resources that first-generation students bring with them to higher education and the factors that assist in these students’ social and academic adjustment to university life
2015, 2019; Johnson 2018) experience less sociocultural strain in college than do other students from similar social backgrounds. While these studies highlight the importance of some precollege experiences for college adjustment, research remains limited on the variety of life course experiences through which FG students can acquire cultural capital that facilitates their adaptation to the dominant social norms at university
Our analysis shows that students’ sociocultural adjustment experiences at university depend on cultural capital acquired in early childhood environments as well as capital acquired through contact with middle-class social environments over the life course, eliciting subtle but palpable habitus adaptations
Summary
Research has brought attention to the heterogeneity of resources that first-generation students bring with them to higher education and the factors that assist in these students’ social and academic adjustment to university life. Studies on working-class and first-generation university students repeatedly show how the limited cultural capital these students inherit from their family environment can make their adjustment experiences to higher education more challenging than for other students (e.g., Aries and Seider 2005; Armstrong and Hamilton 2013; Reay, Crozier, and Clayton 2009).
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