Show Your Pride? First-Generation College Student Experiences with Academic Achievement

Does upward social mobility shape how individuals navigate emotion-laden experiences? The current study examined this question in the context of academic achievement in a sample of first-generation college students. As the first in their families to attend university, this is a group that finds themselves in university environments that encourage open expression of individual achievement, but who typically come from sociocultural backgrounds where there is wariness of the social distancing that can be created by open expression of individual achievement. Qualitative methodology, which allows for in-depth exploration that can generate novel insights and advance theory, was used to study how first-generation college students at the graduate level (N = 32) navigate the emotions that come with academic achievements across academic and family contexts. Thematic analysis of the participant qualitative interview corpus revealed two novel findings. First, participants expressed feelings of both pride and gratitude that included appreciation for those who helped them reach their achievements. Second, participants engaged in capitalization regulation-a term that we introduce to describe the thoughtful consideration of how and with whom to share good news with across one's different social contexts so as to not evoke negative social consequences. These findings contribute to the field's growing understanding of emotion and social class in an important context, first-generation college students, in which these factors are salient. Implications for understanding the complex emotional experiences associated with upward social mobility are discussed.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-025-00309-w.