(PS8-9) Exploring the First-Generation College Student Experience: A Pilot Study on Risk and Resilience

Abstract Text: We define first-generation college students (FGCS) as those who intend to be the first in their immediate family to receive a 4 year bachelor’s degree. Previous research suggests that FGCS are at a higher risk for anxiety, depression, and stress than continuing generation students. In addition, FGCS are more likely to come from low-income and/or single parent families, work full time while attending school, live off campus, be immigrants, and belong to a marginalized racial or ethnic group. The current study describes levels of anxiety, depression, stress, resilience, and self-stigma towards treatment seeking in FGCS at a private university in the northeast. We also compared FGCS scores to previously reported means in the general college student population using two-sample unpaired t-tests. We report on 22 participants (M age=18.8; 81.8% female, 13.6% male, 4.5% gender variant/non-conforming) with the following races/ethnicities: 90.9% white, 9.1% black, 4.5% hispanic or latino, and 4.5% asian. We used the following measures: Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25), and The Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale (SSOSH). In our sample, FGCS DASS-21 scores fell in the ‘normal depression’ (M=8.546, SD=7.884), ‘moderate anxiety’ (M=12.762, SD=9.088), and ‘normal stress’ (M=14.636, SD=9.016) ranges. Compared to general college students in a previous study (N=1074; Depression M=5.44, SD=7.09; Anxiety M=4.85, SD=5.74; Stress M=12.45, SD=8.07; Ramon-Arubes et. al., 2020), FGCS scored significantly higher on depression (t(1094)=2.030, p=0.000) and anxiety (t(1094)=6.171, p=0.000), but there were no significant differences in stress (t(1093)=1.256, p=0.210). In terms of resilience, CD-RISC-25 scores range from 0 (low resilience) to 100 (high resilience). In our sample, FGCS resilience scores were somewhat high (M=67.191, SD=9.626). FGCS students scored significantly lower than general college students from a previous study (t(403)=-2.648, p=0.000; N=384; M=74.71, SD=12.81; Madewell & Ponce-Garcia, 2016). Regarding self-stigma on mental health treatment seeking, SSOSH scores range from 10 (low self-stigma regarding treatment) to 50 (high self-stigma regarding treatment). FGCS students reported somewhat low self-stigma (M=22.318, SD=6.198) and scored significantly lower than general college students from a previous study (t(434)=-3.944, p=0.000; N=414; M=27.63, SD=6.17; Vogel et. al., 2017). To conclude, FGCS students reported lower resilience and higher anxiety and depression symptoms than typical college samples. Encouragingly, they reported lower stigma around mental health treatment-seeking than typical college students. These findings have implications for programming for FGCS on college campuses, including ensuring that there is adequate availability of mental health services for these students.