Academic Achievement in First Generation College Students: The Role of Academic Self-Concept

This study examined whether verbal and math self-concepts could help explain the academic performance of first generation college students.  Participants were 167 ethnically diverse students at an inner city, commuter, open-enrollment, four-year university in the southwestern United States.  Results...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stacie Craft DeFreitas, Anne Rinn
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Indiana University Office of Scholarly Publishing 2012-12-01
Series:Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/2161
Description
Summary:This study examined whether verbal and math self-concepts could help explain the academic performance of first generation college students.  Participants were 167 ethnically diverse students at an inner city, commuter, open-enrollment, four-year university in the southwestern United States.  Results indicated that students with lower verbal and math self-concepts had lower grade point averages.  Furthermore, there were ethnic differences among first generation college students in GPA with Whites performing better than African Americans and Latinos.  In addition, Asians and Latinos had higher math self-concept than African Americans.  The potential for academic self-concept as an important factor in increasing the academic performance of first generation students is discussed.
ISSN:1527-9316