The Psycho-Social Predictors Of Academic Success Of First-Generation African-American College Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the psycho-social predictors for academic success of first-generation African-American college students attending a HBCU. Specifically, the study sought to determine if there was a difference between academically resilient and academically nonresilient first-generation African-American college students on related psycho-social constructs that included internal resilience and external protective factors. This study used Kumpfer's Transactional Model of Resilience, as a theoretical framework for understanding the factors which impact student success (Kumpfer, 1999). Three instruments were used to collect data: (a) the Resilience Scale (Wagnild & Young, 1993); (b) a 36-item Support Questionnaire (Lozada-Santone, 2001); and (c) a Demographics Questionnaire developed specifically for this study. A survey research design was used, in addition to correlational analysis. The accessible population and initial sample size included 621 first-generation African-American college students which consisted of male and female students who ranged in age from 18 to 34. The statistics analyzed and discussed were from the final sample of 195 first-generation African-American college students. The results of the present study suggested the following: participants in this study reported having high internal resilience and low external protective factors; correlational analyses revealed statistically significant negative correlations between internal resilience and external protective factors; there were no statistically significant relationships found between internal resilience and academic resilience; there were no statistically significant relationships found between external protective factors and academic resilience; and there were no statistically significant differences between academically resilient and academically nonresilient students. Concisely, this study contributed to the body of research in internal resilience and external protective factors by confirming the need to further investigate these concepts as they relate to first-generation African-American college students. It is vital for researchers interested in the academic success of first-generation college attendees to critically seek answers by scrutinizing variables that have been disregarded in the literature.