Higher education is essential for economic and social mobility (Brown, 2013). First-generation college students (FGCS) are students who are the first in their families to pursue higher education (Garriott & Nisle, 2018). For FGCS, being a college student means having to contend with more potential stressors throughout their higher education (Garriott & Nisle, 2018). Furthermore, FGCS are more likely to drop out than non-FGCS (Fletcher et al., 2022). Compared to non-FGCS, FGCS are disadvantaged in terms of academic achievement and sense of belonging at college (Wilbur & Roscigno, 2016). A notable percentage of FGCS come from ethnic minority groups (Longwell-Grice et al., 2016). This combination, of being FGCS and an ethnic minority, is associated with adversities in terms of academic achievement, wellbeing, and academic stress (Williams et al., 2024). Additionally, it highlights the importance of targeted interventions for ethnic minority FGCS as underrepresented group (Gehringer et al., 2022).

There is a growing recognition regarding psychosocial resources with which a student can manage the challenges required for successful integration into academic studies (Phillips-Berenstein et al., 2023). The Psychosocial Readiness for College (PRC) model and measure (Phillips-Berenstein et al., 2023), describes six psychosocial resources that ease the challenges of academic performance and enable academic persistence: (a) academic self-efficacy; (b) educational commitment; (c) social comfort; (d) campus engagement; (e) self-discipline; and (f) resilience. Based on the research of Robbins et al. (2004), we aimed in the present research to add an additional factor: (g) institutional commitment, referring to a student’s commitment to study in the current higher education institution and their preference for the current institution over others. Phillips-Berenstein et al. (2023) found that FGCS were higher than non-FGCS in educational commitment and self-discipline. Additionally, they found that students with low levels of educational commitment, social сomfort, and campus engagement are two to three times more likely to dropout of college (Phillips-Berenstein et al., 2023).

An additional factor that may affect optimal college integration is the meaning individuals ascribe to higher education. The Higher Education Orientations model and measure (HEO; Willner et al., 2023) is conceptualized with five distinct purposes for attending college: (a) gaining a profession; (b) gaining knowledge; (c) external pressure; (d) prestige; and (e) socialnetworking.  Willner et al. (2023) used the HEO questionnaire among deliberating young adults and college applicants to see how these factors affected their career decision making process. According to their research individuals seeking to gain profession and knowledge were found to use productive coping strategies and were further along the decision-making process. Contrary, individuals leaning more towards the social, prestige, and external orientations faced more career decision-making difficulties, used nonproductive coping strategies, and were farther behind the decision-making process (Willner et al., 2023).

The Present Research

The intersection of being an ethnic minority and a FGCS may lead to heightened levels of disadvantages. This highlights the importance of understanding two essential factors concerning integration and persistence in higher education: psychosocial readiness for college and higher education orientations. Despite their importance, they have not been studied among ethnic minority FGCS and non-FGCS. Thus, the first goal of this study is to test differences in psychosocial readiness for college and higher education orientations among FGCS and non-FGCS Arab ethnic minority first year college students in Israel. The second goal is to test how these factors predict academic satisfaction one year later. Examining these factors enriches the knowledge about ethnic minority FGCS and non-FGCS, which may contribute to other ethnic minorities. Considering the contribution of academic satisfaction to college persistence, understanding the link between the studied factors and academic satisfaction can enrich the knowledge about college attrition. 

At the beginning of the academic year (Time 1), participants were 1055 Arab ethnic minority first year undergraduate students, studying in 17 colleges and universities in Israel. Of the participants, 76% were women and 66.8% were FGCS. Students were asked to fill out the online questionnaire, containing several parts: (a) demographic questionnaire (gender, age, college major, institution, and parents' education); (b) the Arabic version of the Psychosocial Readiness for College questionnaire (PRC; Phillips-Berenstein et al., 2023) including 38 items (median Cronbach α is .85; Cα range .76–.88 for the six PRC dimensions); (c) the Arabic version of the Higher Education Orientation questionnaire (HEO; Willner et al., 2023) including 25 items (median Cronbach α is .75; Cα range .68–.79 for the five orientations). One year later (Time 2), these students were asked to fill out a follow-up online questionnaire. Of the 1055 students, 370 students completed the follow-up questionnaire (80.3% women, 65.9% FGCS), containing (a) demographic questionnaire (current institution, their college major and whether they have changed their college institution or/and majors); and (b) academic satisfaction (Lent et al., 2005) including seven items (the Cα internal-consistency reliability in the present study was .89). The results of t-tests revealed that participants in the follow-up did not differ from those who did not participate (corrected α = .003) in terms of their PRC (ps range .19 - .98) and their HEO (ps range .85 - .96) scales. In addition, no differences were found in age, gender distribution, religion distribution, and college-generation distribution between those who participated in the follow-up compared to those who did not. First, the properties of the variables were explored. Second, MANOVA analyses were conducted to test gender and college-generation status differences (as they were the two independent variables), and the seven psychosocial resources and the five higher education orientations were the dependent variables. Third, to determine which psychosocial resources and higher education orientations predict academic satisfaction one year later, two linear regressions were carried out for psychosocial resources and higher education orientations, separately.

The results revealed that in terms of psychosocial readiness for college, FGCS scored higher than non-FGCS only in self-discipline. According to Phillips-Berenstein et al. (2023), a possible explanation is that FGCS who succeeded in attaining higher education despite the obstacles may have high self- discipline that helps them cope with these adversities. In higher education orientations, no differences between FGCS and non-FGCS were found. Interestingly, among non-FGCS higher knowledge and lower external pressure higher education orientations predicted greater academic satisfaction one year later, while psychosocial factors did not contribute to the prediction. Among FGCS, profession orientation and four psychosocial factors (academic self-efficacy, institutional commitment, self-discipline and resilience) positively predicted academic satisfaction one year later. The present research is the first to study psychosocial readiness for college and higher education orientations among FGCS and non-FGCS ethnic minority students, and how these factors predicted academic satisfaction. The contribution of institutional commitment to academic satisfaction emphasizes the importance of adding this scale to the psychosocial readiness for college model and questionnaire. Understanding these factors provides essential addition to the literature on ethnic minorities and college-generation in higher education. Students’ individual and social characteristics have a strong impact on their probability to succeed in higher education. Based on our findings, it is important to systematically monitor ethnic minority FGCSs’ psychosocial resources (especially academic self-efficacy, institutional commitment, self-discipline and resilience), and the meaning they attribute to higher education (especially, acquiring a profession) even prior to the beginning of their academic studies. This can help identify those at risk and facilitate institutional interventions through personal counselling, coaching and mentoring.

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