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The transition from high school to college constitutes a developmental milestone in the lives of students (Wang, 2014b). During this period students become more independent (Padgett, Johnson, & Pascarella, 2012; Reid & Moore, 2008), gain exposure to people and environments that differ from those of their families of origin (Stebleton, Soria, & Huesman, 2014), and begin to navigate new relationships and societal expectations (Jenkins, Belanger, Londono Connally, Boals, & Duron, 2013; Wang, 2014b). For most students entering college, embarking on this new chapter is a time of great stress; however, first-generation students experience these stressors very differently than their continuing-generation peers (Jenkins et al., 2013; Mehta, Newbold, & O’Rourke, 2011). Customarily, students rely on the support of family and friends to help them successfully assimilate to their new academic environments (Jenkins et al., 2013; Soria & Stebleton, 2012). Unfortunately, first-generation students often lack such resources at the ready, since they are the first in their families to experience the transition and demands incurred during this progression from high school to college.
To support first-generation students, colleges and universities have increasingly developed programs to promote success and retention of these students. The vast majority of research on such programs and first-generation students has, however, focused on academic retention, such that a salient gap in the literature persists regarding the ways programs can most aptly address students’ mental well-being. To address this gap, we used data from focus groups and interviews with students involved in GenOne-a pseudonym for an academic enrichment program for first-generation college students-to gain a deeper understanding of the perceptions first-generation students have of their own mental well-being needs during the transition to college, as well as components of the enrichment program they found beneficial to their well-being.
First-generation students enter college with different needs and expectations than their peers who are not first-generation students (Reid & Moore, 2008). First-generation college students are often defined as students who come from families in which neither their parents nor their guardians have achieved college degrees (Mehta et al., 2011; Padgett et al., 2012; Stebleton et al., 2014; Wang, 2014b). In recent years, the number of first-generation students on college campuses has increased significantly. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2013), 46% of undergraduate college...