Relevance of Parental Income and Education to Learning Behaviors of College Students : Toward the Construction of Post-First Generation Theory

In the United States, the first generation student issue has been examined by many researchers and several kinds of federal support policies have been implemented. The rate of attending graduate schools has risen simultaneously. Recently, it has been frequently pointed out that the disparity caused by income and education widening in the United States. In fact, while the top 10% of parent income group occupies 64% of Tier 1 higher education institutions, that group accounts for only 11 % of the Tier 6 & Tier 7 groups. Given such widening disparity caused by parental income and education, analysis of these higher education issues with post-first generation theory is urgently needed. This research explores the relevance of parental income and education with learning behaviors and experiences of college students. It uses a quantitative research design using data obtained from CSS2012 designed for upper division students from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. The research framework examines whether or not there are differences of learning behaviors and experiences of college students between public and private universities and between academic majors and if there are differences, it analyzes what kind of factors make those differences. Findings of the study confirm that the proportion of parents attending graduate schools increases and the effect of federal support policies for first-generation students can be observed in public universities to some extent. Also, federal support policies for first-generation students have certain effects on some college experiences and learning. However, findings of the study suggest that students from high family income and parent education tend to select STEM majors. It is noted that occupations in STEM fields assure higher income relatively. On the other hand, first-generation students tend to choose education majors. Hence, this study confirms that family background such as parent income and education impacts students’ choice of majors. In other words, the study confirms the existence of a reproduction function of family backgrounds for higher education in the United States.本研究は，科学研究費補助金挑戦的萌芽研究「大学生版QOL指標の開発を踏まえた学修成果測定研究の新展開」（課題研究番号：15K13208）の研究成果の一部である