Pressure in First Generation College Students

First Generation Pressure

by Alejandra Ramos

Every child wants to make their parents proud. As we continue in our education, we try our best to achieve accomplishments to bring back home to our parents so we can feel that validation that we are striving in life. As we grow older and go into college, we question ourselves if we will go into a career path that we truly want to go into or go into a career path where our parents will feel satisfied with it.

There is one group of college students that will always have this kind of pressure where it causes them to be overwhelmed as they continue their education. First generation college students have this type of pressure of not only having to achieve in school but needing to live up to their parents’ high expectations. They are also considered the role model in their family since they are the first to go to college but it can be mentally exhausting.

Children of immigrant parents will most likely want to have a successful career not only for themselves but also for their parents. Most parents come from a country where they couldn’t have the opportunities and luxuries that we currently have now. For this reason, they give full support to their children when it comes to their education but there comes a point where they put too much pressure where it can be mentally draining. It also overwhelms us because if we aren’t successful academically then we immediately think that we are disappointing our parents and that we are not paying them back for the support they give us. There are even times where students get burned out from school but feel that they must continue through solely because of not wanting to disappoint their parents. It almost seems that immigrant parents prioritize the education of their children over anything else in their lives. Academic pressure leads to stress in students’ life which also leads to burnout, behavioral issues, and irritability. Results concluded that family stress and pressure leads to higher levels of depression (Deng, 2022). As a first generation college student, it’s honorable to be the first in my family to continue in higher education but there were times where I felt burned out because I wanted to seem that everything was fine but in reality I had no motivation and yet I had to push through because I was afraid of what my parents might think.

Parents put pressure on their children but are not aware of the damage they are causing to them and because they most likely don’t hold much knowledge of mental health awareness, it’s likely that the child will experience anxiety which plays a factor into their development. Having to meet parents’ expectations may be a risk of internalizing problems. Studies have shown that high parental expectations on academic achievement are associated with poor mental health. The demand for academic success and lack of parent support increases the chances of having at least one mental illness along with the consequences like anxiety and poor academic performance (Almroth, 2018). I feel that parents see themselves in their children as the life they wanted for themselves therefore it creates the pressure and high expectations. Most parents believe that college life is an easy journey but it’s actually mentally draining plus with the anxiety of meeting parents’ expectations it’s exhausting overall.

Regardless of parents’ opinions, every first generation college student will have this type of pressure no matter how secure they feel about their future plans. Parents need to realize that it’s better to give full support even if they don’t agree with their child’s future plans. They are going into a big change where they don’t have anybody to guide them since they are the first in the family to do so, therefore they need support from everyone more than ever.

References

Melody Almroth, Krisztina D. László, Kyriaki Kosidou, Maria Rosaria Galanti, Academic expectations and mental health in adolescence: a longitudinal study involving parents' and their children's perspectives, Journal of Adolescent Health, Volume 64, Issue 6, 2019, Pages 783-789, ISSN 1054-139X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.11.015.

Deng Y, Cherian J, Khan NUN, Kumari K, Sial MS, Comite U, Gavurova B, Popp J. Family and academic stress and their impact on students' depression level and academic performance. Front Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 16;13:869337. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.869337