Relationship of parent academic socialization to academic success among first generation college students

Research shows that First Generation College Students (FGCS) have lower rates of college degree attainment than their continuing generation peers. Many of these students face challenges navigating social, academic, financial, and administrative domains when working toward a post-secondary degree. Academic self-efficacy (ASE) is an important predictor of academic success in college. Research suggests that parents can influence ASE through parent academic socialization (PAS), which includes academic expectations set by the parents (PAE), parent academic advice (PAA), and parental attitudes about education (PEA). The current study sought to examine the influence of PAS on ASE in FGCS and its subsequent effect on academic success. Responses were collected from over 250 FGCS at two universities in California using an online survey. It was hypothesized that PAS would predict GPA and that ASE would mediate this relationship. The mediation analyses were not significant. However, PAE as well as ASE did significantly predict GPA. PAA and PEA predicted ASE, which is promising for improving academic outcomes among FGCS. Future studies in this area could benefit from using a longitudinal research design and the literature as a whole could benefit from using more common methods of measurement across studies. Future research in this area has the potential to expand understanding of how parent factors may impact college student success and to inform parent-based interventions for supporting academic achievement