The Impact of Covid-19 on the Educational and Career Outcomes of First-Generation College Students and their Families

新冠肺炎疫情极大地扰乱了第一代大学生的教育--这些人的父母没有完成大学学位。这些学生及其父母往往是低收入、少数族裔和/或移民背景。与其他家庭相比，他们吸收疫情引发的教育和社会危机的影响的资源较少，但完成大学学位的风险也更大。在第一代大学生家庭中，父母和孩子们共同努力，争取个人和集体的成功，他们相信高等教育将促进家庭的经济流动性，改善他们的社会地位，并帮助他们履行对彼此的义务。这项研究考察了新冠肺炎疫情如何影响第一代大学生家庭的教育和生活目标，以及为支持这些目标而采取的行动。该项目的调查结果将以面向公众的文件和包括公共档案在内的基于网络的格式共享，为弱势学习者和家庭提供大学支持和社会服务。该项目由文化人类学和已建立的激励竞争性研究计划(EPSCoR)共同资助。该项目假设，新冠肺炎疫情导致第一代大学生及其家人将着眼于眼前实际需求的照顾行动放在优先位置，而不是通过教育实现更好生活的长期目标。这一假设将通过三年的数据收集和分析进行调查。60对家长-学生将各自参与：1)由两名PI于2020年5月创建的为期两年的流行病日志项目(PJP)平台上的每月日志；2)对研究人员的两次一对一访谈；以及3)家长和学生之间进行的两次访谈。这些不同的方法将捕捉到家庭在教育和福祉方面不断变化的思维、目标和行动。理解这些观点和选择将推动家庭如何在危机发生后通过教育和照料创造有意义的生活的理论。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly disrupted the education of first-generation college students—those whose parents did not complete a college degree. These students and their parents are often low-income, racial/ethnic minorities, and/or of an immigrant background. Compared to other families, they have fewer resources to absorb the impact of the educational and social crises stemming from the pandemic, but also have more at stake in completing a college degree. In families of first-generation college students, parents and children strive together for individual and collective success based on the belief that higher education will advance the family's economic mobility, improve their social status, and help them fulfill their obligations to each other. This research examines how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the educational and life goals of first-generation college student families and the actions taken in support of these goals. The project findings, to be shared in public-facing documents and web-based formats including a public archive, informs university supports and social services for vulnerable learners and families. This project is jointly funded by Cultural Anthropology and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The project hypothesizes that the Covid-19 pandemic has led first-generation college students and their families to prioritize caretaking actions aimed at immediate practical needs over the longer- term goals of better lives enabled by education. This hypothesis will be investigated through three years of data collection and analysis. Sixty parent-student pairs will each participate in: 1) two years of monthly journaling on the Pandemic Journaling Project (PJP) platform, created by two of the PIs in May 2020; 2) two one-on-one interviews with researchers; and 3) two interviews conducted between parent and student. These varied methods will capture families' shifting thinking, goals, and actions in relation to education and well-being. Understanding these perspectives and choices will advance theories of how families seek to create meaningful lives through both education and caregiving in the wake of crisis.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.