On-Campus Social Support and Hope as Unique Predictors of Perceived Ability to Persist in College

Abstract

The psychological construct of hope, characterized by goal-directed thinking rooted in personal agency and the ability to develop pathways to achieve goals, has long been demonstrated to predict academic success. A sample of 994 undergraduates participated in this study to better understand the role of hope and on-campus social support in predicting students’ perceived ability to persist and succeed in college. Results demonstrated that on-campus support, particularly from teachers and professors, significantly predicted academic outcomes and hope. In addition, we found evidence of a support gap in which students from underrepresented ethnic minorities were far more likely to report that they had no support from educators on campus. Findings demonstrate the need for more research on the role of social support in developing hope in college students and highlight the value of encouraging meaningful relationships between students and faculty on campus.

Keywords

social support hope academic success college students retention

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Astin

A. W.

(1993). What matters in college? Liberal Education, 79(4), 4–15.

Biemiller

(2018, March 11). Can a signature program save your college? Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/Can-a-Signature-Program- Save/242783

Bishop

E. C.

Willis

(2014). Without hope everything would be doom and gloom: Young people talk about the importance of hope in their lives. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(6), 778–793.

Buckelew

S. P.

Crittendon

R. S.

Butkovic

J. D.

Price

K. B.

Hurst

(2008). Hope as a predictor of academic performance. Psychological Reports, 103, 411–414. doi:10.2466/PR0.103.2.411-414

Cheavens

J. S.

Feldman

D. B.

Gum

Michael

S. T.

Snyder

C. R.

(2006). Hope therapy in a community sample: A pilot investigation. Social Indicators Research, 77(1), 61–78. doi:10.1007/s11205-005-5553-0

Crisp, G. & Cruz, I. (2009). Mentoring college students: A critical review of the literature between 1990 and 2007. Research in Higher Education, 50(6), 525–545.

Davidson

O. B.

Feldman

D. B.

Margalit

(2012). A focused intervention for first-year college students: Promoting hope, sense of coherence and self-efficacy. Journal of Psychology, 146, 333–352.

Day

Hanson

Maltby

Proctor

Wood

(2010). Hope uniquely predicts objective academic achievement above intelligence, personality, and previous academic achievement. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(4), 550–553. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2010.05.009

Elliott

T. R.

Sherwin

E. D.

(1997). Developing hope in a social context: Alternative perspectives of motive, meaning, and identity. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1, 119–123.

10.

Feldman

D. B.

Kubota

(2015). Hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and academic achievement: Distinguishing constructs and levels of specificity in predicting college grade-point average. Learning and Individual Differences, 37, 210–216. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2014.11.022

11.

Fischer

M. J.

(2007). Settling into campus life: Differences by race/ethnicity in college involvement and outcomes. The Journal of Higher Education, 78(2), 125–161.

12.

Fruiht

(2015). Supportive others in the lives of college students and their relevance to hope. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 17(1), 64–87. doi:10.1177/1521025115571104

13.

Fruiht

Chan

(2018). Naturally occurring mentorship in a national sample of first-generation college goers: A potential portal for academic and developmental success. American Journal of Community Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1002/ajcp.12233

14.

Gallagher

M. W.

Marques

S. C.

Lopez

S. J.

(2017). Hope and the academic trajectory of college students. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18(2), 341–352. doi:10.1007/s10902-016-9727-z

15.

Green

L. S.

Grant

A. M.

Rynsaardt

(2007). Evidence based life coaching for senior high school students: Building hardiness and hope. International Coaching Psychology Review, 2(1), 24–32.

16.

Guthrie

D. D.

(2011). “Hope is the ticket to life”: Insights from disadvantaged African American youth (Doctoral dissertation, Loyola University Chicago). Retrieved from http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/251

17.

Guthrie

D. D.

Ellison

Sami

McCrea

K. T.

(2014). Clients’ hope arises from social workers’ compassion: African American youths’ perspectives on surmounting the obstacles of disadvantage. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 95(2), 131–139. doi:10.1606/1044-3894.2014.95.17

18.

Harper

S. R.

(2013). Am I my brother’s teacher? Black undergraduates, racial socialization, and peer pedagogies in predominantly White postsecondary contexts. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 183–211. doi:10.3102/0091732X12471300

19.

Harper

S. R.

Davis

R. J.

Jones

D. E.

McGowan

B. L.

Ingram

T. N.

Platt

C. S.

(2011). Race and racism in the experiences of Black male resident assistants at predominantly White universities. Journal of College Student Development, 52(2), 180–200. doi:10.1353/csd.2011.0025

20.

Heisserer

D. L.

Parette

(2002). Advising at-risk students in college and university settings. College Student Journal, 36, 69–83.

21.

Hansen

M. J.

Trujillo

D. J.

Boland

D. L.

MacKinnon

J. L.

(2014). Overcoming obstacles and academic hope: An examination of factors promoting effective academic success strategies. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice, 16(1), 49–71.

22.

Hurd

N. M.

Tan

J. S.

Loeb

E. L.

(2016). Natural mentoring relationships and the adjustment to college among underrepresented students. American Journal of Community Psychology, 57, 330–341. doi:10.1002/ajcp.12059

23.

Ishiyama

(2007). Expectations and perceptions of undergraduate research mentoring: Comparing first generation, low income White/Caucasian and African American students. College Student Journal, 41, 540–549.

24.

Kemer

Atik

(2012). Hope and social support in high school students from urban and rural areas of Ankara, Turkey. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(5), 901–911. doi:10.1007/s10902-011-9297-z

25.

Kuh

G. D.

(2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

26.

Marques

S. C.

Gallagher

M. W.

Lopez

S. J.

(2017). Hope- and academic-related outcomes: A meta-analysis. School Mental Health, 9, 250–262. doi:10.1007/s12310-017-9212-9

27.

Nora

Crisp

(2007). Mentoring students: Conceptualizing and validating the multi-dimensions of a support system. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice, 9(3), 337–356.

28.

Park

J. J.

Denson

(2009). Attitudes and advocacy: Understanding faculty views on racial/ethnic diversity. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(4), 415–438.

29.

Pascarella

E. T.

Pierson

C. T.

Wolniak

G. C.

Terenzini

P. T.

(2004). First-generation college students: Additional evidence on college experiences and outcomes. Journal of Higher Education, 75(3), 249–284.

30.

Pedrotti

J. P.

Edwards

L. M.

Lopez

S. J.

(2008). Promoting hope: Suggestions for school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 12, 100–108.

31.

Rand

K. L.

Martin

A. D.

Shea

A. M.

(2011). Hope, but not optimism, predicts academic performance of law students beyond previous academic achievement. Journal of Research in Personality, 45(6), 683–686. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2011.08.004

32.

Raposa

E. B.

Erickson

Rhodes

Hagler

(2018). How economic disadvantage affects the availability and nature of mentoring relationships during the transition to adulthood. American Journal of Community Psychology, 61, 191–203.

33.

Robinson

Rose

(2010). Predictive, construct, and convergent validity of general and domain-specific measures of hope for college student academic achievement. Research in the Schools, 17(1), 38–52.

34.

Sahranç

Ü.

Çelik

Turan

M. E.

(2017). Mediating and moderating effects of social support in the relationship between social anxiety and hope levels in children. Journal of Happiness Studies. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s10902-017-9855-0

35.

Schreiner

L. A.

(2014). Different pathways to thriving among students of color: An untapped opportunity for success. About Campus, 19, 10–19. doi:10.1002/abc.21169

36.

Schwartz

S. E. O.

Kanchewa

S. S.

Rhodes

J. E.

Cutler

Cunningham

J. L.

(2016). I didn't know you could just ask: Empowering underrepresented college-bound students to recruit academic and career mentors. Children and Youth Services Review, 64, 51–59.

37.

Smith

(2007). Accessing social capital through the academic mentoring process. Equity & Excellence in Education, 40, 36–46. doi:10.1080/10665680601088465

38.

Snyder

C. R.

(1994). The psychology of hope: You can get there from here. New York, NY: Free Press.

39.

Snyder

C. R.

(2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 249–275.

40.

Snyder

C. R.

(2005). Teaching: The lessons of hope. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24(1), 72–84.

41.

Snyder

C. R.

Cheavens

Sympson

S. C.

(1997). Hope: An individual motive for social commerce. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1(2), 107–118.

42.

Snyder

C. R.

Harris

Anderson

J. R.

Holleran

S. A.

Irving

L. M.

Sigmon

S. T.

, Harney

(1991). The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(4), 570–585.

43.

Snyder

C. R.

Shorey

H. S.

Cheavens

Pulvers

K. M.

Adams

V. H.

Wiklund

(2002). Hope and academic success in college. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(4), 820–826. doi:10.1037//0022-0663.94.4.820

44.

Snyder

C. R.

Shorey

H. S.

Rand

K. L.

(2006). Using hope theory to teach and mentor academically at-risk students. In Buskist

Davis

S. F.

(Eds.), Handbook of the teaching of psychology (pp. 170–174). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

45.

Supiano

(2018, February 8). How one university connects students with mentors and surprising success. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-One-University-Connects/242495

46.

Swecker

H. K.

Fifolt

Searby

(2013). Academic advising and first-generation college students: A quantitative study on student retention. NACADA Journal, 33(1), 46–53.

47.

Syed

Azmitia

Cooper

C. R.

(2011). Identity and academic success among underrepresented ethnic minorities: An interdisciplinary review and integration. Journal of Social Issues, 67(3), 442–468.

48.

Sympson

S. C.

(1999). Validation of the Domain Specific Hope Scale: Exploring hope in life domains (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Kansas, Lawrence.

49.

Tinto

(1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press

50.

Tinto

(2006). Research and practice of student retention: What next? Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 8(1), 1–19.

51.

U.S. Department of Education. (2008). A profile of the federal trio programs and child care access means parents in school program. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary, Federal TRIO Programs. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/trio/trioprofile2008.pdf

52.

Williams

C. R.

Butler

S. K.

(2010). A new retention variable: Hope and first generation college students. Retrieved from http://counselingoutfitters.com/vistas/vistas10/Article_11.pdf