Casandra E. Harper

Parental Engagement and Contact in the Academic Lives of College Students

Information on the various forms of parental involvement in higher education is lacking. This paper investigates parental engagement in college students’ academic lives, the mode and frequency of student-parent communications, and how all of this varies across different student populations (by race/ethnicity, social class, parental immigrant status, gender, and year in school). Drawing from the 2006 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES), results revealed parental contact and engagement in college students’ academics to be greatest among women, freshmen, and wealthy/upper middle-class students. Comparisons by race, ethnicity, and parental immigration status revealed above-average levels of parental contact among Mexican American, Latino/Other Spanish, Japanese/Japanese American, American Indian/Alaska Native students, and students of foreign-born parents, but below-average ratings of parental engagement in these same students’ academic lives.

The Role of Parents in College Students' Sociopolitical Awareness, Academic, and Social Development.

This study examined the relationship between parental contact (frequency of student-parent communication) and involvement (parents’ interest and/or involvement in students’ academic progress and decision-making) with college students’ personal, social, and academic development. Parental involvement accounted for over two-thirds of the significant relationships detected, most of which were positive. Parental contact produced only 10 significant relationships, half of which were negative. The results also reveal conditional effects by race, gender, social class, and year in college.

Financial Aid and First-Year Collegiate GPA: A Regression Discontinuity Approach

Using a regression discontinuity design, we investigate whether a merit-based financial aid program has a causal effect on the first-year grade point average of first-time out-of-state freshmen at the University of Oregon. Our results indicate that merit-based financial aid has a positive and significant effect on first-year collegiate grade point average. Further, we find that this positive relationship between financial aid and grade point average exists for both low-income students and students of color.

Pre-college and college predictors of longitudinal changes in multiracial college students’ self-reported race

This longitudinal study of 1101 multiracial college students from 105 US institutions reveals the dynamic racial designation choices of participants as freshmen and as seniors, as 56% of the sample gave inconsistent responses about their race over time. Logistic regressions predicting a multiracial designation choice as seniors reveal the pre-college and college factors associated with developing or maintaining this choice over the span of college. Experiences such as living on campus, joining a racial or ethnic student organization, taking an ethnic studies course, participating in a racial awareness workshop, and discussing issues of political or personal importance were each significant predictors of the racial identification patterns examined in this study. The results of this study offer evidence of the need to consider longitudinal changes in students’ race and the ways in which students’ racial identification preferences change between the time they enter and leave college.

Ideologies of Invisibility and Support for Families of Color During Orientation Initiatives

This article reviews how orientation programs perpetuate or combat an ideology of invisibility for families of Color during the transition into college. Findings identify the ways in which ideologies of invisibility or support are constructed through institutional messaging of dismissal or welcome that influence the engagement of families of Color. Implications are offered for research and practice when working directly with diverse families and for extending literature around the role of families in higher education.