Disadvantaged College Students Research Articles

The Relationship Between Character Strengths and Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese Impoverished College Students: The Chain Mediating Roles of Perceived Social Support and Positive Emotions.

The mental health of economically disadvantaged college students in China is notably inferior to that of their non-disadvantaged peers. As such, these students necessitate a broader spectrum of psychological support beyond mere financial assistance. Seligman's PERMA theory has established a compelling association between social support and positive emotions with subjective well-being. However, there is a scarcity of research focusing on character strengths within this framework, particularly the mechanisms that underlie their relationship. Hence, this study aims to examine the relationship between character strengths and subjective well-being among Chinese impoverished college students, while also delving into the chain mediating roles of perceived social support and positive emotions. A convenience sampling method was employed to collect cross-sectional data from impoverished college students. Participants (N=336, Mean age=20.67) were assessed using four instruments: the Chinese Virtues Questionnaire (CVQ-96), the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Character strengths, perceived social support, positive emotions, and subjective well-being were all significantly positively correlated with each other (p<0.01). In addition, regression analysis indicated that character strengths positively predicted perceived social support (β=0.71, p<0.001), positive emotions (β=0.44, p<0.001), and subjective well-being (β=0.52, p<0.001). Perceived social support positively predicted positive emotions (β=0.34, p<0.001), and subjective well-being (β=0.44, p<0.001). Positive emotions positively predicted subjective well-being (β=0.88, p<0.001). Furthermore, chain mediation analysis revealed that character strengths influenced subjective well-being both directly and indirectly through perceived social support and positive emotions. Perceived social support and positive emotions play a chain mediating role between character strengths and subjective well-being among impoverished college students.

Developing an Online Game-Based Index System for Identifying Economically Disadvantaged College Students using Hesitant Fuzzy Attribute Reduction

Developing an Online Game-Based Index System for Identifying Economically Disadvantaged College Students using Hesitant Fuzzy Attribute Reduction

The intersectionality of professional and personal identity formation in a virtual pre-health pathway program

Background and purposeTo describe the development and implementation of professional and personal identity formation content in a virtual pre-health pathway program. Educational activity and settingContent within a six-week pre-health program for underrepresented and/or disadvantaged college students was redesigned to a virtual format with enhanced focus on professional and personal identity formation. Sessions on personal identity formation were also enhanced through a partnership with local mental health clinicians specializing in trauma-informed care and culturally relevant practices and strategies. FindingsThe 2020 and 2021 programs were restructured to include pharmacy professional identity formation content around the following weekly themes: Roadmap to Pharmacy, What Does it Mean to be a Pharmacist?, Expanding Knowledge of Pharmacy, Gaining Insight and Dispelling Myths, Practicing Knowledge and Exploration, and Moving Forward. These pre-pharmacy components emphasized diversity of career paths, pharmacy-based clinical services, and the pharmacist's role in promoting health equity. Overarching components of interprofessional collaboration coupled with health policy applications further emphasized the professional identity of a pharmacist in the collaborative design and delivery of health care. New personal identity formation sessions were implemented in tandem with this content and centering around the following themes: Supporting Scholars in Self-Authorship, Building a Community among Peers, and Strategies for Coping in Times of Challenge. SummaryThis project has the potential to serve as a model for the implementation of both personal and professional identity formation initiatives at other programs to promote pharmacy as a desirable and attainable career to pre-health students.

The Effect of Social Support on Depression among Economically Disadvantaged College Students: The Mediating Role of Psychological Resilience and the Moderating Role of Geography.

The study examined the influence of social support on depression, including the mediating role of psychological resilience and the moderating role of geography. Questionnaires were completed by 424 economically disadvantaged college students in two provinces, X, a coastal province, and Y, an inland province. The results indicated that (1) the social support of economically disadvantaged college students was positively correlated to psychological resilience (β = 0.62, t = 11.22, p < 0.001); (2) the psychological resilience of economically disadvantaged college students was negatively correlated with depression (β = -0.24, t = -10.3, p < 0.001); (3) the social support of economically disadvantaged college students was negatively correlated with depression (β = -0.08, t = -2.85, p < 0.001); (4) the psychological resilience of economically disadvantaged college students played a partial mediating role between social support and depression; and (5) geography played a moderating role in the effect of social support on depression.

Social Class-Based Discrimination and Psychological Symptoms Among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged College Students: The Moderated Mediation Role of Stress Mindset and Rumination.

Discrimination as a crucial stressor damages the mental health of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals through increased ruminative thinking. A “stress-is-enhancing” mindset may protect the mental health of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals under the pressures of perceived discrimination and rumination. This study examined the mediating role of rumination and the moderating role of stress mindset in the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological symptoms among socioeconomically disadvantaged college students. A total of 919 socioeconomically disadvantaged undergraduate students (48.4% female, ages 17–25) were recruited. The results indicated that perceived discrimination was positively associated with psychological symptoms among socioeconomically disadvantaged undergraduate students through rumination (B = 0.11, boot SE = 0.01, boot 95% CIs = [0.08, 0.13]). Importantly, stress mindset moderated the indirect association between perceived discrimination and psychological distress through rumination (B = −0.18, boot SE = 0.08, boot 95% CIs = [−0.32, −0.03]). Specifically, compared with individuals with low levels of the stress-is-enhancing mindset, the indirect effect of perceived discrimination on psychological distress through rumination was weaker among individuals with high levels of the stress-is-enhancing mindset. The findings provide support for future intervention practice to promote a stress-is-enhancing mindset to protect the mental health of socioeconomically disadvantaged college students under the pressures of perceived discrimination and rumination.

Mindfulness and well-being among socioeconomically disadvantaged college students: Roles of resilience and perceived discrimination

Previous studies have suggested that mindfulness can protect the well-being of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals. This article examines the mediating roles of resilience and perceived discrimination in the relationship between mindfulness and well-being (including life satisfaction and psychological distress) among socioeconomically disadvantaged college students. A questionnaire was administered to 919 socioeconomically disadvantaged undergraduates (48% females, aged 17–25). According to the results of structural equation modeling, mindfulness was positively associated with life satisfaction and negatively associated with psychological distress. These two relationships were mediated along three pathways: higher resilience, lower perceived discrimination, and the sequential pathway from higher resilience to lower perceived discrimination. These results suggest that mindfulness is positively related to greater life satisfaction and negatively related to psychological distress among socioeconomically disadvantaged college students by enhanced resilience and decreased perceived discrimination. The findings can be applied to the design of mindfulness-based psychological health care services for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.

An Intervention Using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® on Fostering Narrative Identity Among Economically Disadvantaged College Students in Taiwan

The effectiveness of an intervention using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP), a reflective tool using LEGO® building bricks, to speed the development of narrative identity in economically disadvantaged college students was studied. A longitudinal experimental study with non equivalent experimental/control groups ( N = 45) was conducted to examine whether an 8-week LSP program could enhance narrative identity formation. Findings show that participants taking part in the program reported higher levels of narrative coherence, agency (autonomy), and communion (relationship) compared to the control group. Additionally, the LSP participants reported significantly lower anxiety and depression than did those in the control group, both at the posttest and at follow-up after 1 month. Mediation analyses show that the impact on economically disadvantaged college students’ narrative identities led to decreased anxiety and depression as well as increased well-being. Limitations of these results are discussed, and implications for counseling practice, research, and theory are offered.

Faculty‐librarian collaboration in improving information literacy of educational opportunity program students

PurposeThis study aims to examine the instruction of basic information literacy (IL) skills taught to the socio‐economically disadvantaged students in the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) at Rider University in summer 2011. The study set out to determine how the beginning IL levels of EOP freshmen differ from those of other freshmen, their learning outcomes, and retention of IL as a means to improve future research instruction.Design/methodology/approachFaculty of a speech communication class and two librarians collaborated in integrating IL in the class assignments of the 2011 summer EOP program. The assessment tools include identical pre‐ and post‐tests, a second post‐test with different multiple correct answer questions, a survey about students' perceptions of their IL training, and the teaching faculty's observations of EOP students' research skills.FindingsEOP freshmen are equivalent to the peer freshmen in their low levels of IL skills. The findings suggested that EOP freshmen complete IL instruction with stronger IL skills. The second post‐test revealed that many students were confused about some basic IL concepts. Faculty's observation of students' information literacy skills concurs with the pre‐ and post‐tests.Originality/valueThis study fills a void in the literature on recent research of information literacy skills of socio‐economically disadvantaged college students. The multi‐correct answer questions employed are valuable but rarely employed in studies or discussed in the literature. The collaboration of faculty and librarians in assignment design is valuable as an increasing number of faculty are utilizing librarians to teach the necessary IL skills needed in today's curricula.

A Social and Academic Enrichment Program Promotes Medical School Matriculation and Graduation for Disadvantaged Students

This study assessed the impact of a pre-medical pipeline program on successful completion of medical school and the capacity of this program to address achievement gaps experienced by disadvantaged students. The University of North Carolina (USA) Medical Education Development (MED) program provides intensive academic and test skills preparation for admission to medical, dental, and other allied health professions schools. This retrospective study evaluated the academic progress of a longitudinal sample of 1738 disadvantaged college students who completed MED between 1974 and 2001. Data sources included MED participant data, medical school admissions data for the host school, aggregate data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), and individual MED participant data from AAMC. Methods of analysis utilized Chi-square, independent samples t test, and logistic regression to examine associations between factors. Of the 935 students in MED from 1974 to 2001, who had indicated an interest in medical school, 887 (94.9%) successfully matriculated and 801 (85.7%) successfully earned the MD degree. Using logistic regression, factors that were significantly correlated with earning the medical degree included the student's race, college undergraduate total and science grade point averages, with Hispanic, African American, and Native American participants earning the medical degree at rates comparable to Caucasian participants. MED students successfully earned the MD degree despite having significantly lower Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) scores and undergraduate grade point averages compared to all United States medical school applicants: MCAT scores had little relationship with student's success. These findings suggest that an intensive, nine-week, pre-medical academic enrichment program that incorporates confidence-building and small-group tutoring and peer support activities can build a foundation on which disadvantaged students can successfully earn matriculation to and graduation from medical school.

The Effective Counselor and the Disadvantaged Student: A View from Both Sides

Previous research in counseling has identified specific characteristics that counselors should have to be effective with their clients. For this study, fifty of these characteristics, taken from the literature, have been placed into four categories: (1) innate characteristics, such as race, gender, and age; (2) characteristics acquired through personal development and life experience, such as attentiveness, clarity, and trustworthiness; (3) characteristics that have been learned, such as organization and analytical and critical competence; and (4) characteristics conferred by institutions, such as education, degrees, and titles. While these characteristics are attributed to effective counseling in a general sense, this study examines the variance of their importance as viewed by college counselors and by clients who are economically and academically disadvantaged college students, primarily black and Hispanic. The study combines the fifty characteristics to allow for an optimal selection from the literature and attempts to delineate the varying degrees of importance to indicate and analyze by gender which are most essential and least essential for counselors of disadvantaged students.

Counseling College Students: A New Arena for Social Work Practice

Very few social workers practice their profession in colleges and universities. This paper describes involvement counseling, a counseling strategy based on person-environment fit, which is highly compatible with current research on social integration in colleges and universities. A multiple regression analysis shows such counseling to be the most important variable in the social integration of disadvantaged college students into their respective schools of higher education. It is also shown that through social integration, this type of counseling is a major factor enabling low-income minority students to persist through the first two years of postsecondary education. The paper concludes that the application of social work skills and knowledge can help institutions of higher education realize their mission.

Application of a Conceptual Model of College Withdrawal to Disadvantaged Students

This paper reports a study of retention and attrition after the freshman year among disadvantaged students at an urban, primarily non-residential, university. Economically and academically disadvantaged college students are widely known to be at risk for attrition, which highlights the need to investigate the process among members of this group. Substantial progress has been made developing and testing explanatory models of college student withdrawal, but they have only begun to be directly applied to special groups of students such as the disadvantaged. The study applies a conceptual model developed by Tinto (1975) to a group of students who, through a special program, were admitted to a senior college within The City University of New York. The paper tests the predictive validity of major constructs in the model. It was shown to be sensitive to the dimensions of student-institutional fit operating in the situation, and indicated that academic integration was the most salient aspect of development for this group of students. Social integration had limited influence, especially when considered relative to academic measures. The results were seen as reinforcing the recognition that the acquisition of academic skills and behaviors is paramount for the success of underprepared students.

Reliability and Discriminant Validity of Institutional Integration Scales for Disadvantaged College Students

Pascarella and Terenzini (1980) developed five factorially derived institutional integration scales to operationalize Tinto's (1975) conceptual model of college student withdrawal. Some psychometric characteristics of these scales are estimated for disadvantaged students at an urban commuter institution. The results revealed suspected reading comprehension problems. After several items had been revised and retested, the scales showed improved characteristics. The scales were judged as exhibiting acceptable reliability and discriminant validity for the samples of students studied.

Career development of special populations: A framework for research

In view of the recent interest in the career behaviors of diverse groups of individuals, this article presents a model for conducting research on the career development of special populations. Available research paradigms are reviewed in terms of their potential impact on such efforts. An alternative framework, designed to make maximum use of available data sources while minimizing potential theoretical bias, is offered. An illustration of research conducted within the recommended framework is presented in which the impact of a variety of career-related variables on the attitudinal and cognitive aspects of vocational maturity is examined from the perspective of two special population groups, disabled and disadvantaged college students. Drawing upon previous research findings, variables under consideration included level of scholastic achievement and endorsement of rational, intuitive, and dependent decision-making styles. Also included were two population-specific variables related to the characteristics of membership in each of the two special groups. The regression analyses conducted to explore the relationships between vocational maturity and these predictor variables indicate, in general, that variance in the attitudinal and cognitive factors of vocational maturity can be at least partially explained by the variables considered. However, the relative contributions of the predictors and the resulting proportions of variance explained differs according to which population and which criterion factor is under examination. These findings are compared with those emerging from previous research, and implications for future efforts are discussed.

Locus of Control, Achievement, and Failure among Disadvantaged College Students, a Follow-up

Hohmuth and Ramos (1973), studying a group of disadvantaged college freshmen, observed a relationship between scores on Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control (I-E) Scale (Rotter, 1966) and academic improvement following failure in the first semester. Students who had failing grade point averages at the end of their first semester were much more likely to improve their performance during the second semester if they had an internal locus of control. I t was suggested that among these academically marginal students, perceived locus of control might be an important factor in determining ultimate success or failure in college, the expectation being that the internal students would be the most likely to graduate. Now, five years later, the data show that while there is a relationship between the I-E Scale and college success for this group of students, it is the opposite of what was expected. Of the original grocp of 32 failing students, 21 have dropped out of college (failure), while 11 have graduated, transferred to other colleges, or are seniors expected to graduate in June (success). These students were split, at the median of the total original group, into an internal group and an external group. Of the internal group, 3 were successes, while 12 were failures. Of the external group, 8 were successes, while 9 were failures (x2 of 3.92, df = 1 , P < .05). There is no indication of a relationship between the I-E Scale and college success or failure among the students who were actually passing at the end of their first semester. Students faced with initial failure were much more likely to improve in their next semester if their perceived locus of control was internal, but they were ultimately more likely to drop out of college. It may be important that, while the improvements were often substantial, in only three cases were they sufficient to take the students off academic probation by the end of the first year. It seems .that the internal students, faced with continuing marginal performance, were more likely to seek a non-academic alternative than were their external counterparts.

Cognitive and motivational variables as predictors of academic performance among disadvantaged college students.

Cognitive and motivational variables as predictors of academic performance among disadvantaged college students.

The evaluation of a special educational opportunities program for disadvantaged college students

This paper analyzes the early academic achievement of disadvantaged, mainly black, students admitted to the Special Educational Opportunities Program (the SEOP) at the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois in the fall of 1968 and 1969.High school percentile rank and standardized test scores predicted the early overall academic performance of SEOP students. Validities, though significant, were not high and were possibly attenuated by use of too difficult test instruments and by inflated grading practices. Nevertheless, the data indicate that recruitment people should not abandon customary merit selection based upon these types of measures. Test scores were found to be more valid for predicting the GPA of regularly admitted students than for the prediction of GPA for SEOP students; the predictive effectiveness of high school percentile rank was greater for regularly admitted students.

Educational Opportunity Program Graduates Compared to Educational Opportunity Program Non-Graduates

As educational opportunity programs continue and grow, the need for research seems highly warranted since there is the alarming awareness that more knowledge is needed to assure higher success rates for The reason for this need appears to be threefold: (1) to provide baseline data for successful and unsuccessful program participants to which the preparation and performance of subsequent groups can be compared, (2) to determine if all program participants are similar in terms of their distinct academic and supportive service needs, and (3) to disseminate more knowledge of these programs to the public. A review of the literature reveals that: (1) most research on general college persistence has been limited to white, advantaged, students within white universities; (2) most research on disadvantaged, college students has appeared during the past ten years; and (3) nearly all studies of disadvantaged college students have involved comparisons of black students with a group that may be classified as predominantly non-black advantaged students. A relative dearth of information is available which compares educational opportunity program graduates with educational opportunity program non-graduates.

Locus of control, achievement, and failure among disadvantaged college students.

Rotter's (1966) Internal-External Locus of Control (I-E) Scale was administered to 69 disadvantaged college freshmen. Correlations of this scale with grade point average (gpa) at the end of the first semester and with cumulative gpa at the end of the second semester were nonsignificant. However, for those students who were failing at the end of the first semester a correlation of .49 ( p &lt; 05) was observed between I-E score and change in cumulative gpa at the end of the second semester.

Disadvantaged Students in the Traditional University Reading Improvement Program

The differential effectiveness of a traditionally-oriented college reading improvement program was assessed for culturally disadvantaged and typical students by means of the Nelson Denny Reading Test. Although the, disadvantaged group improved significantly in vocabulary and rate, no measurable gain was demonstrated in comprehension. The failure of the disadvantaged students to make as much progress as the regular enrollees appears to be partially attributable to differences in scholastic aptitude and initial reading proficiency. The findings indicate that traditional reading instruction does not meet the special educational needs and problems of disadvantaged college students.