Age differences explain social class differences in students’ friendship at university: implications for transition and retention

Abstract

The present research tested the hypotheses that (a) working-class students have fewer friends at university than middle-class students, and (b) this social class difference occurs because working-class students tend to be older than middle-class students. A sample of 376 first-year undergraduate students from an Australian university completed an online survey that contained measures of social class and age as well as quality and quantity of actual and desired friendship at university. Consistent with predictions, age differences significantly mediated social class differences in friendship. The Discussion focuses on potential policy implications for improving working-class students' friendships at university in order to improve their transition and retention.

Student perceptions of belonging at university: a qualitative perspective.

“…Our qualitative data suggested that timing of social events around commutes, as well as start times of lectures and availability of suitable space on campus, were all important to students. This is in broad agreement with what others have found (Thomas & Jones, 2017), and is not unique to this institution; the difficulties for traditionally atypical students have been recognised in the literature (Read et al, 2018;Pokorny et al, 2017;Carruthers Thomas, 2016;Rubin & Wright, 2015;Read et al, 2003).…”

“…Perhaps in the case of students this may be imagined as gaining mastery of a subject or establishing a secure learner identity. An intrinsic part of belonging is that it is by its very nature exclusive, since not everyone will belong (Rubin & Wright, 2015).…”

“…Belonging is seen as a process rather than a status, as an intrinsic part of transition and the formation of a learner identity is a component of this (Antonsich, 2010). Social integration is also an important part of belonging (Rubin & Wright, 2015) and the need to form social links and friendships appears to be very strong (Baumeister & Leary, 1995;Perry & Allard, 2003), although this may vary for example with age (Rubin & Wright, 2015).…”

Examining the role of perceived prestige in the link between students’ subjective socioeconomic status and sense of belonging

“…In addition, since low-SES students are usually older than high-SES students, they often have to work off campus and to take care of their family (Terenzini, Springer, Yaeger, Pascarella, & Nora, 1996). Consequently, they have less time to devote to the college community and have fewer friends (Terenzini et al, 1996), which ultimately impairs their social integration (Rubin & Wright, 2015, 2017). In addition, a recent line of research has shown that due to low familiarity with the cultural codes of higher education emphasizing independence, low-SES students also have fewer personal resources (i.e., they have a more interdependently shaped self-construal) to meet the expectation of this environment than higher SES students (Stephens, Hamedani, & Destin, 2014).…”

Measurement issues of the social class in social psychology of education: Is it a category mistake?

“…Curtin, 2011;Rubin & Wright, 2015;Soria, Stebleton, & Huesman, 2013;Wiederkher, Bonnot, Krauth-Gruber, & Darnon, 2015). As Keefer, Goode, and Berkel (2015) found the relevance of the class consciousness in the social and political psychology literature, it is shown that the current use of subjective measure misses some important picture about social class.…”