Talking Through Trouble: How Family, Peer, and Institutional Communication Shapes Resilience in First‑Gen Students

Leilanny Morocho

College: College of Liberal Arts

Major: BA.COMM/PUB/REL

Faculty Research Mentor: Alvarez, Cimmi

Abstract:

First-generation college students (FGCS) experience a range of challenging structural and interpersonal factors that have been shown to result in their lower retention and graduation rates compared to continuing generation students. This investigation will examine the Communication Theory of Resilience (CTR) approach to understanding the ways that first-generation college students practice resilience on a communicative level within their networks of family, peers, and institutions. Using thematic analysis of four publicly available YouTube narratives, the research identified resilience triggers and traced the micro-sequences of communicative actions that enable FGCS to navigate academic and social stressors. Four main themes were revealed to be: (1) Supportive Communication From Family, Peers, and Faculty, significant to emotional foundation and support; (2) Reframing Marginalization Into Empowerment, where the tool of communication helps build identities rather than be held marginalized; (3) Trigger Patterns in Institutional Communication, highlighting the discrepancies in the timing when the university needs to provide communication in relation to the requirements of the student; and finally, (4) Resilience Through Synchronized Communication, signifying the relevance and importance of appropriate institutional communication. Findings demonstrate that resilience is not an individual trait but a co-constructed communicative process dependent on relational alignment across multiple support systems. The current study expands CTR by showing the implementation of communication in the family, peer groups, and institutional contexts in terms of influencing trajectories of resilience. It provides implications for designing interventions with equity in mind in the context of higher education support systems.