Competencies Measured

Parenthetical Citation

Main Themes/

Constructs

Research Question(s)

Theoretical Framework or Model

Population & Sample description & “N=”

Methodology& Design

Summary of Findings

 (Nin & Keeton, 2020)

Lack of institutional support, the importance of self-regulation and personal responsibility, family support, and importance of financial resources

What challenges do first-generation community college students experience when navigating through the process of transferring to a four-year university?

Ben and Eaton’s model of student retention

N = 10

Students from a large, public, community college volunteered to participate in the study.

Qualitative

Narrative

 The participants began community college with limited experience and knowledge about higher education. Their limited income, experience, and a lack of parental guidance led to many challenges. These challenges included difficulties with financing their education, feelings of isolation, setback and obstacles (poor grades, struggles in class, repeated course withdrawals), and struggles balancing work and school commitments, sometimes because of a lack of motivation in early college career. However, what the students all had in common was that they learned how to navigate community college and made new realizations, which guided them through momentum points. Analysis of the interview transcripts resulted in four challenges and four realizations that were consistent in this group of first-generation students: Limited income, developing financial awareness, feeling isolated and alone, utilizing support systems and campus resources, setbacks and obstacles, staying focused and hopeful, lack of motivation in early college career, and finding their drive.

Capannola & Johnson, 2022

family relationships, first-generation college students, qualitative

Braun and Clarke’s inductive thematic analysis

N=8

large public university in the Southeastern

qualitative phenomenological design

 Garvey et al., 2020

Does a Sense of belonging contributes to academic success, persistence, and self-efficacy among students, and is especially poignant for first-generation students ?

Strayhorn’s (2012) sense of belonging model:

quantitative

 email using students’ university-provided email addresses and via social media platforms (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). We provided incentives to promote survey completion among student respondents