Examining the Role of Social Support for Adolescents from Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds in a College Access Program

Abstract

Prior research has shown that college access programs help to increase college-going for youth from lower-income backgrounds. In addition to increasing college access, these programs also provide social support to youth and impact their academic and non-academic outcomes. Guided by risk and resilience frameworks, the present study examined social support from the college access program as a promotive factor for adolescents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The results indicated that social support was positively associated with personal resources, future college-going, and confidence in academic abilities. Overall, the current findings affirm the importance of investigating social support for adolescents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. These findings also have implications for future research related to social support from college access programs.

Rethinking “Educación Diversificada” for Afro-Descendants in Costa Rica

“…In low-income households, parents and students are less likely to receive information about higher education entry programs and are deterred by perceived high college/university costs. Therefore, students fail to academically prepare themselves for higher education while in high school, reducing their postsecondary opportunities substantially (Crawley et al, 2019;Gale, 2021). Also, students trust their high school counselors, mainly because their parents and siblings may have little to no experience with higher education preparation and unlikely to know how to guide and support them in the higher education preparation process .…”