Social identities and the achievement gap: Incompatibility between social class background and student identity increases student disidentification, which decreases performance and leads to higher dropout rates.

Education is not equally distributed across all people. It has often been found that students from low social class background have lower access to universities, less academic achievement and higher dropout rates compared with their peers (called the 'achievement gap'). We investigate how the student social identity contributes to the emergence of the achievement gap and focus on student disidentification, a negative internalized relation to the in-group. We predict that disidentification reduces academic performance (Hypothesis 1) and increases university dropout rates (Hypothesis 2). Moreover, we predict that social class background affects identity incompatibility which, in turn, increases student disidentification (Hypothesis 3). We explore whether social class background affects long-term identity incompatibility, or whether identity incompatibility affects long-term disidentification by comparing two mediation models. Hypotheses 1 and 3 were supported cross-sectionally in a large sample (N = 2768), and longitudinally in a sub-sample 1.5 years later (N = 591). The data demonstrate that social class background has a long-term effect on incompatibility, which is related to disidentification. Hypothesis 2 was also supported in a (partly overlapping) sub-sample (N = 1077). The current research demonstrates that students with low social class background suffer from identity-related adaptation problems that affect their academic trajectories.

Neither fish nor fowl: A perceived mismatch in norms and values between oneself, other students, and people back home undermines adaptation to university.

Students from low social-class background often struggle to adapt to university. Previous research shows that perceived incompatibility between social-class background identity and student identity is one reason, but little is known about the underlying causes of identity incompatibility. In three studies, we expected and found that students with low subjective social-class background perceived their values differently from other students, but also differently from people back home, and both increased identity incompatibility. Identity incompatibility negatively affected the student identity. Additionally, the current research also identifies specific patterns of norm and value differences that are prone to perceived identity incompatibility. The findings demonstrate that perceived differences in values from both groups are important mechanisms for identity incompatibility induced by the transition to university that may affect student identities and potentially their university trajectories.