The Affects of Family Support on College Students
Missouri State University

The Affects of Family Support on College Students

Attending College is often a huge step to many students, but having an involved parent can be key to a student’s success in college. Having an involved parent can be a helpful source of insight, a shoulder to lean on when they stumble, a cheerleader to encourage and praise their successes, and a place of safety and rest. But researchers have found that first-generation college students receive far less emotional, informational and financial support from their parents than continuing-generation students (Rhoades, G. K., & Wood, L. F, 2014).
Rationale
As the number of students attending college rises every year, it is important for students of the future to have a positive support system behind them. Attending college is the start to achieving a higher social class and becoming part of the thirty percent of people with a college degree in the United State. For the future of education and employment, it has concerned researchers and practitioners about the amount of families not supporting their children of their education choices.
The purpose of conducting further research on the lack of family support of college students is to expand on the research by Piorkowski, G. K. (1983), Rhoades, G. K., & Wood, L. F. (2014), Wei, M., Yeh, C. J., Chao, R. C., Carrera, S., & Su, J. C. (2013) and Oshikawa, S. (1968) to use their findings to add our understandings of the relationship between parent and college student. Because they have examined ways in which show the emotional experiences of first-generation college students, the affects of grades and contentedness of the student’s personal life, and the extent to which it exists for non first generations college students has not yet been fully examined. Therefore, this paper examines the lack of family support on college students and how it affects grades and contentedness of personal life with use of the Cognitive Dissonance theory.
The theory of cognitive dissonance suggests that an individual has cognitive elements about himself, his past behavior, his beliefs and attitudes, and his environments (Oshikawa, S, 1968). Leon Festinger proposed the cognitive dissonance theory, which states that a powerful motive to maintain cognitive consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior. According to Festinger, we hold much cognition about the world and ourselves; when they clash, a discrepancy is evoked, resulting in a state of tension known as cognitive dissonance. Experimental research on cognitive dissonance has been hindered by methodological problems. As Chapanis and Chapanis pointed out, some experiments were designed and manipulated to ensure outcomes predicted by the theory (Oshikawa, S, 1968). Sadomi Oshikawa wanted to connect Cognitive Dissonance theory with experimental research. He measured he pattern of changes in preference from the first survey to the second survey which was taken two weeks apart and based on music albums. Within Oshikawa’s study he found that though using recognition scores will not protect experimenters from the built-in bias, they are a more valid measure of cognitive dissonance. Using recognition score reduce the possibility of obtaining a significant difference between the different groups when subject experienced no dissonance. This resource may help the families and students understand they effects of not wanting their child to attend college. However this quantitative study focused on examining the change of dissonance between a period of time.
From the above review, Oshikawa 1968 results call for further and more recent examination of the effects of the Cognitive Dissonance theory on students, which is not experimental based. However there has been an array of quantitative research done based on family support and communication with students at college from different cultures and races . In terms of family support, many Asian American ethnic groups tend to value males over females. Asian American males receive more resources and attention from their families because greater expectations are placed on males to carry on family traditions and the family name (Wei, M., Yeh, C. J., Chao, R. C., Carrera, S., & Su, J. C. (2013). When Asian American males seek family support, family members are likely to comfort them to minimize the hurt associated with racial discrimination and to instill ethnic pride. In this particular study on Asian and African American boys, supportive parenting reduced the probability that discrimination would lead to violence. Even though the study solely focused on African Americans, they argued that supportive parenting behaviors would be beneficial to children regardless of ethnicity or social circumstances (Wei, M., Yeh, C. J., Chao, R. C., Carrera, S., & Su, J. C. 2013). Thus, family support may be a resource for the American male students; however there seems to be a lack of research and support of American female students.
Being at college is normally the first time for many students to be away from their families and home environments. But for other’s it’s the first time that someone in the families generation to attend college. This experience of being the lone person to surpass the achievements of family members has been referred to as survivor guilt. Piorkowski argued that when first generation students were more successful than their families, they struggled with the stress cased by family members did not have the same chance of attending college. While the college student was experiencing more privileges and opportunities in college but felt concerned of the impact they left going away to college on their family which created the concept of survivor guilt (Piorkowski, G. 1983). While Piorkowski (1983) is the first to apply the concept of survivor guilt to the university setting, she offers no empirical test of the concept. In addition the research that has been conducted only examined the affects on a first-generation student, which does not take into the consideration of non-first-generation students or traditional students, but shows there is a need for research within this particular field.
Other the guilt while being away at college, students can feel different around their families related to their social adjustment. Galena K. Rhoades and Lisa F. Wood (2014) provides evidence that emotional distress about one’s family plays an important role in explaining the association between family conflict and social adjustment These findings suggest that one of the ways in which family relationships may impact college students’ social adjustment is through the way they regulate emotional distress about family. Although there is a huge amount of research that has been conducted with the emotional aspects on a student and family, typically there is no research based on the success of the student that is experiencing emotional distress in college.
Perhaps one of the main reasons why there is a dearth of literature on family support of students in college is that previous studies do not consider that there is more to the psychological and emotional effects that a family has on a student. For a student to graduate college he/she must pass classes, and make the requirements needed. Another limitation regarding the research literature is that when conducting studies on a particular race, or gender, interview questions may not consider ones social class, sexuality or background. Thus, given these factors the following research question and hypothesis was created:
R1: How does the Cognitive Dissonance Theory stem from lack of family support for grades and contentedness of personal life
H1: Students with unsupportive families will have good grades, with a strong personal and social life, having a positive impact on Cognitive Dissonance
H2: Students with unsupportive families will question their abilities and their time at college, which will reflect on their grades, they will also seclude themselves from others.

References

Oshikawa, S. (1968). The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance and Experimental Research. Journal
Of Marketing Research (JMR), 5(4), 429-430.
Piorkowski, G. K. (1983). Survivor Guilt in the University Setting. Personnel & Guidance
Journal, 61(10), 620.
Rhoades, G. K., & Wood, L. F. (2014). Family conflict and college-student social adjustment:
The mediating role of emotional distress about the family. Couple And Family
Psychology: Research And Practice, 3(3), 156-164. doi:10.1037/cfp0000024
Wei, M., Yeh, C. J., Chao, R. C., Carrera, S., & Su, J. C. (2013). Family support, self-esteem, and perceived racial discrimination among Asian American male college students. Journal Of Counseling Psychology,60(3), 453-461. doi:10.1037/a0032344