Emotional Granularity, Coping, and Adjustment in First-Generation College Students
Social Sciences
Psychology 195: Senior Thesis
First-generation college students (FGCS) are the first in their family to go to college face unique challenges in their transition and adjustment to college and graduate at significantly lower rates than their non-FGCS peers. It has been theorized that the ability to concretely, whether verbally or conceptually, characterize emotional experiences with nuance and granularity is correlated with the ability to better overcome adversities. To assess whether emotional granularity may help FGCS retention, we collected self-narratives through in-person interviews of 10 FGCS juniors and seniors about their transition to and through college. The interview narratives were analyzed for emotional granularity (EG), an individual’s ability to differentiate between specific states of emotion, as well as how many different coping strategies were utilized. Analysis revealed a correlation between EG and the number of coping strategies utilized, suggesting that institutional efforts to increase FGCS may benefit from employing strategies to increase EG and in turn the number of tools (i.e. coping strategies) FGCS are able to utilize when facing challenges unique to FGCS.
