Promoting Low-Income College Student Success through Peer Mentoring: A Mixed Methods Examination

Abstract

Background:

Low-income students face cultural and social challenges navigating college environments that privilege middle- and upper-class norms, knowledge, and values; these challenges lead to difficulty transitioning to college and disparities in student success for low-income students relative to their higher-income counterparts. Peer mentoring, where a more experienced peer transfers critical knowledge needed to successfully transition to college, is one popular strategy intended to increase student success. Despite wide use of mentoring and its potential role in promoting a successful college transition among marginalized students, there are exceptionally few robust empirical studies examining the impact of peer mentoring on the success of students from low-income backgrounds, explicitly.

Purpose:

Understanding whether and how peer mentoring shapes low-income college student success is necessary to know if there is sufficient evidence to suggest the efficacy of implementing this practice for this student population, what outcomes peer mentoring is successful at promoting among low-income students, and—if proven successful—how other peer mentoring programs can be designed and implemented in a way that accomplishes similar positive outcomes among low-income students during their transition to college. Formal peer mentoring is implemented as part of a comprehensive college transition program called the Thompson Scholars Learning Community (TSLC), which serves low-income students at a three-campus midwestern university system. Our mixed methods study answers the following research questions within that context: (1) What is the relationship between engagement with peer mentors and low-income students’ college success? And if a relationship does exist, (2) How does peer mentor engagement shape low-income students’ college success?

Research Design:

This study of peer mentoring drew data from a larger, concurrent mixed methods study of low-income student success that included simultaneous data collection of longitudinal survey data and student interview data. The data used for quantitative analysis were drawn from two longitudinal surveys of first-year, low-income college students who participated in the TSLC college transition program’s peer mentoring—one cohort who began college in 2015 and another in 2016 (n = 786). We used multiple regression to estimate the relationship between low-income students’ peer mentoring engagement and (1) their cumulative first-year grade point average (GPA) and (2) five psychosocial outcomes measured at the end of their first year of college. Longitudinal, one-on-one interviews with 83 students were the primary qualitative data source we leveraged to explain how peer mentoring shaped student success outcomes.

Conclusions:

Quantitative findings indicated that engagement with a peer mentor effectively increased low-income students’ academic self-efficacy, major and career self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and mattering. Qualitative results showed that peer mentoring promoted low-income college student success by providing them with (1) proactive college guidance, (2) validating messages, and (3) holistic support. As educators and policymakers seek ways to facilitate a successful college transition for low-income students, they should consider peer mentoring designed with principles of support like those reflected in our findings.