INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES Unseen Disadvantage: How American Universities’ Focus on Independence Undermines the Academic Performance of First-Generation College Students
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES Unseen Disadvantage: How American Universities’ Focus on Independence Undermines the Academic Performance of First-Generation College Students
复制标题
人际关系和群体过程看不见的劣势：美国大学对独立性的关注如何损害第一代大学生的学业表现
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
2012
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Rebecca Covarrubias
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Nicole M. Stephens;Stephanie A. Fryberg;Camille S. Johnson;Rebecca Covarrubias
美国大学越来越多地招收父母没有四年制学位的第一代大学生。一旦被录取，与下一代学生（至少有一位家长拥有四年制学位的学生）相比，这些学生在学业上往往会遇到困难。我们提出了一种文化不匹配理论，该理论确定了这种社会阶层成就差距的一个重要根源。四项研究检验了这样的假设：第一代学生表现不佳是因为他们大多是工人阶级背景的相互依赖的规范与大学中普遍存在的中产阶级独立规范不匹配。首先，在评估大学文化规范时，对大学管理者的调查显示，美国大学主要关注独立性规范。其次，为了确定假设的文化不匹配，一项纵向调查显示，大学对独立性的关注与第一代学生相对相互依赖的上大学动机不匹配，而且这种文化不匹配与较低的成绩有关。最后，在私立和公立大学进行的两项实验对第一代学生进行了匹配或不匹配，并检验了其表现后果。这些研究共同表明，以独立性（即开辟自己的道路）来代表大学文化使学术任务变得困难，从而损害了第一代学生的表现。相反，以相互依赖（即成为社区的一部分）来代表大学文化可以减少这种困难感并消除表现差距，而不会给下一代学生带来不利后果。这些研究迫切需要认识到导致社会阶层成就差距的文化障碍，并制定干预措施来解决这些障碍。
American universities increasingly admit first-generation college students whose parents do not have 4-year degrees. Once admitted, these students tend to struggle academically, compared with continuing-generation students—students who have at least 1 parent with a 4-year degree. We propose a cultural mismatch theory that identifies 1 important source of this social class achievement gap. Four studies test the hypothesis that first-generation students underperform because interdependent norms from their mostly working-class backgrounds constitute a mismatch with middle-class independent norms prevalent in universities. First, assessing university cultural norms, surveys of university administrators revealed that American universities focus primarily on norms of independence. Second, identifying the hypothesized cultural mismatch, a longitudinal survey revealed that universities’ focus on independence does not match first-generation students’ relatively interdependent motives for attending college and that this cultural mismatch is associated with lower grades. Finally, 2 experiments at both private and public universities created a match or mismatch for first-generation students and examined the performance consequences. Together these studies revealed that representing the university culture in terms of independence (i.e., paving one’s own paths) rendered academic tasks difficult and, thereby, undermined first-generation students’ performance. Conversely, representing the university culture in terms of interdependence (i.e., being part of a community) reduced this sense of difficulty and eliminated the performance gap without adverse consequences for continuing-generation students. These studies address the urgent need to recognize cultural obstacles that contribute to the social class achievement gap and to develop interventions to address them.
影响因子：
7.6
作者：
Iyengar, SS;Lepper, MR
通讯作者：
Lepper, MR
影响因子：
7.6
作者：
Muller, D;Judd, CM;Yzerbyt, VY
通讯作者：
Yzerbyt, VY