Difference-education interventions teach people a contextual theory of difference: that social group difference comes from participating in and adapting to diverse sociocultural contexts. At two universities, we delivered difference-education interventions during the college transition and examined long-term academic and intergroup outcomes. Nearly 4 years later, first-generation students who received a difference-education intervention earned higher grades and were more likely to attain honors standing than those in the control condition. Based on an end-of-college survey with students at one of the two universities, both first-generation and continuing-generation students showed greater comfort with social group difference compared with students in the control condition. Our results demonstrate for the first time that teaching first-generation students a contextual theory of difference can lead to long-term academic benefits that persist until graduation. This work also provides new evidence that difference-education can improve comfort with social group difference.
BlackwellL. S.TrzesniewskiK. H.DweckC. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Development, 78(1), 246–263. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00995.x
2.
CohenG. L.ShermanD. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychology intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 65(1), 333–371. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115137
3.
DuncanG.MurnaneR. (Eds.). (2011). Whither opportunity? Rising inequality, schools, and children’s life chances. Russell Sage Foundation.
4.
FaulF.ErdfelderE.LangA. G.BuchnerA. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191.
FiskeS. T.MarkusH. R. (Eds.). (2012). Facing social class: How societal rank influences interaction. Russell Sage Foundation.
7.
GurinP.NagdaB. A.ZunigaX. (2013). Dialogue across difference: Practice, theory, and research on intergroup dialogue. Russell Sage Foundation.
8.
JonesE. B.JacksonJ. D. (1990). College grades and labor market rewards. The Journal of Human Resources, 25(2), 253–266.
9.
KaoG. (1995). Asian Americans as model minorities? A look at their academic performance. American Journal of Education, 103, 121–159. https://doi.org/10.1086/444094
10.
KellyJ. T.KendrickM. M.NewgentR. A.LucasC. J. (2007). Strategies for student transition to college: A proactive approach. College Student Journal, 41(4), 1021–1035.
11.
KhooP.OstB. (2018). The effect of graduating with honors on earnings. Labour Economics, 55, 149–162.
12.
LakensD. (2013). Calculating and reporting effect sizes to facilitate cumulative science: A practical primer for t-tests and ANOVAs. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, Article 863. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00863
13.
LandisJ. R.KochG. G. (1977). An application of hierarchical kappa-type statistics in the assessment of majority agreement among multiple observers. Biometrics, 33(2), 363–374. https://doi.org/10.2307/2529786
14.
LeeT. L.WiltonL. S.KwanV. S. (2014). Essentializing ethnicity: Identification constraint reduces diversity interest. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 55, 194–200.
15.
LevyS. R.PlaksJ. E.HongY.ChiuC.DweckC. S. (2001). Static versus dynamic theories and the perception of groups: Different routes to different destinations. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 156–168. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0502_6
16.
LoveJ.SelkerR.MarsmanM.JamilT.DropmannD.VerhagenJ.. . . MatzkeD. (2019). JASP: Graphical statistical software for common statistical designs. Journal of Statistical Software, 88(2), 1–17.
17.
MartinA. E.PhillipsK. W. (2017). What “blindness” to gender differences helps women see and do: Implications for confidence, agency, and action in male-dominated environments. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 142, 28–44.
18.
MartinA. E.PhillipsK. W. (2019). Blind to bias: The benefits of gender-blindness for STEM stereotyping. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 82, 294–306.
19.
MillerD. T.DannalsJ. E.ZlatevJ. J. (2017). Behavioral processes in long-lag intervention studies: Peering into the white box. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 12(3), 454–467. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616681645
20.
MurphyM. C.GopalanM.CarterE. R.EmersonK. T.BottomsB. L.WaltonG. M. (2020). A customized belonging intervention improves retention of socially disadvantaged students at a broad-access university. Science Advances, 6(29), Article eaba4677.
21.
NagdaB. A.KimC. W.TrueloveY. (2004). Learning about difference, learning with others, learning to transgress. Journal of Social Issues, 60(1), 195–214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-4537.2004.00106.x
22.
NagdaB. R. A.ZunigaX. (2003). Fostering meaningful racial engagement through intergroup dialogues. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 6(1), 111–128.
23.
NoS.HongY. Y.LiaoH. Y.LeeK.WoodD.ChaoM. M. (2008). Lay theory of race affects and moderates Asian Americans’ responses toward American culture. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(4), 991–1004.
24.
PhillipsL. T.StephensN. M.TownsendS. S.GoudeauS. (2020). Access is not enough: Cultural mismatch persists to limit first-generation students’ opportunities for achievement throughout college. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(5), 1112–1131.
25.
PhinneyJ. (1992). The multigroup ethnic identity measure: A new scale for use with adolescents and young adults from diverse groups. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 156–176.
26.
PlautV. C.GarnettF. G.BuffardiL. E.Sanchez-BurksJ. (2011). “What about me?” Perceptions of exclusion and Whites’ reactions to multiculturalism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(2), 337–353. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022832
27.
SteeleC. M. (2010). Whistling Vivaldi: How stereotypes affect us and what we can do. W.W. Norton.
28.
StephensN. M.HamedaniM.TownsendS. S. M. (2019). Difference matters: Teaching students a contextual theory of difference can help them succeed. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14, 156–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618797957
29.
StephensN. M.HamedaniM. H.DestinM. (2014). Closing the social-class achievement gap: A difference-education intervention improves first-generation students’ academic performance and all students’ college transition. Psychological Science, 25(4), 943–953. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613518349
30.
StephensN. M.TownsendS. S. M.HamedaniM. G.DestinM.ManzoV. (2015). A difference-education intervention equips first-generation college students to thrive in the face of stressful college situations. Psychological Science, 26(10), 1556–1566. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615593501
31.
ThomasS. L. (2000). Deferred costs and economic returns to college major, quality, and performance. Research in Higher Education, 41(3), 281–313.
32.
TibbettsY.HarackiewiczJ. M.CanningE. A.BostonJ. S.PriniskiS. J.HydeJ. S. (2016). Affirming independence: Exploring mechanisms underlying a values affirmation intervention for first-generation students. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110(5), 635–659.
33.
TownsendS. S. M.StephensN. M.SmalletsS.HamedaniM. (2019). Empowerment through difference: An online difference-education intervention closes the social class achievement gap. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45, 1068–1083. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218804548
34.
WaltonG. M.CohenG. L. (2007). A question of belonging: Race, social fit, and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(1), 82–96. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.82
35.
WilliamsM. J.EberhardtJ. L. (2008). Biological conceptions of race and the motivation to cross racial boundaries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(6), 1033–1047.
36.
WilsonT. D. (2011). Redirect: The surprising new science of psychological change. Little, Brown and Company.
37.
YeagerD. S.WaltonG. M. (2011). Social-psychological interventions in education: They’re not magic. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 267–301. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311405999
38.
ZúñigaX.MildredJ.VargheseR. J.DeJongK.KeehnM. G. (2012). Engaged listening in race/ethnicity and gender intergroup dialogue courses. Equity & Excellence in Education, 45(1), 80–99.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
