Career Adaptabilities of First-Generation College Students: Navigating Challenges in the 21st Century

Abstract

Since first-generation college students have limited university experience in their families, they may face many difficulties in their lives and this affects their adaptation levels. While there are many studies about academic and personal adaptation and development of first-generation college students, there are limited studies examining their career adaptabilities. From this point of view, in this study, the career adaptability of first-generation college students was examined in depth with consensual qualitative analysis. To this purpose, 12 university students whose families (including siblings) did not receive four-year university education were included in the study. A semi-structured interview form was used as data collection tool in the study. The qualitative data obtained were analyzed according to the stages of the consensus-based qualitative research method. As a result of the analysis, the career adaptability of first-generation college students was categorized under four domains: concern, control, confidence and curiosity. The findings were discussed within the scope of the literature and various suggestions were made.