“I Didn’t Just Do It for Myself”: Exploring the Roles of Family in Adult Learner Persistence

Abstract

Adult students and are a rapidly growing population in U.S. higher education. Yet limited scholarship has centered on the voices of adult learners and explored the complex roles that family play in their decisions to enroll and their motivations to persist in college. This study begins to fill that gap. In a grounded theory study using individual interviews with 31 adult students at a continuing education campus in the northeast United States, we documented the complicated roles family played in adult student motivation, success, and persistence. Three grounded theory categories emerged from this study: (a) family as a source of motivation, inspiration, and pride; (b) family as a source of tangible support; and (c) family as a challenge. We suggest numerous ways that higher education institutions can use these findings to foster success and persistence for adult students.