From First-Generation to Flourishing: Exploring the Influence of Academic, Social, and Deeper Life Interactions in Higher Education

Despite comprising half of all undergraduate students (RTI International, 2024) and being widely studied in higher education literature, first-generation students experience many barriers to success and are less likely to graduate than continuing-generation students (Engle & Tinto, 2008; Fry, 2021; Kezar et al., 2023). Social science and higher education scholars have identified flourishing, the presence of complete mental health and holistic well-being (Keyes & Haidt, 2003), as an important outcome of higher education beyond more traditional success metrics, with the thought that flourishing promotes success in other areas. This study explored how first-generation students’ academic, social, and deeper life interactions influenced their experience of flourishing. Deeper life interaction represents a recent contribution to higher education scholarship involving interactions around meaning, values, and purpose (Sriram et al., 2020a; Sriram & McLevain, 2016) that are not encapsulated in traditional social and academic interactions (Tinto, 1993). Data was collected via The Academic, Social, and Deeper Life Interactions Instrument (Sriram et al., 2020a) and The Flourishing Scale (Diener et al., 2009) and analyzed via structural equation modeling (SEM) to determine how first-generation students’ academic, social, and deeper life interactions with their peers, faculty, and staff predicted their flourishing. Participants included 309 undergraduate students (N = 112 first-generation students) from a public, state university on the east coast. The final structural equation model indicated acceptable fit [χ2 = 467.088 (df = 199, p < .001), CFI = .939, RMSEA = .066, SRMR = .0944] and explained 20.4% of the variance in flourishing for first-generation students. Social Interactions with Faculty/Staff – Greetings (SIFSG) (β = .287), Social Interactions with Peers (SIP) (β = .263), and Deeper Life Interactions with Peers (DIP) (β = .067) had the strongest impact on first-generation students’ flourishing. Recommendations for future practice include: (1) creating opportunities for social interactions between students and their peers, faculty, and staff; (2) developing avenues for social and academic interactions to lead to deeper life interactions in classroom and co-curricular settings, including student organizations, programs, and residence halls; and (3) assessing how students’ interactions with others in and out of class are contributing to their flourishing throughout college.