Understanding the first-generation student experience in higher education through a relational dialectic perspective.

The authors use relational dialectics theory to argue that first-generation college students (FGS) often struggle with a give-and-take tension between getting involved in campus life and losing their familial and working-class identity. They suggest that because FGS straddle two different cultures of academia and home, institutions must address these tensions to improve the students' retention and graduate rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]