Accounting for unequal access to higher education: The role of social identity factors
Open accessAbstract
Western societies stress the potential for anyone, irrespective of social background, to improve their position within society. However, disadvantaged students face barriers in gaining a good education. Two studies in secondary schools show how perceptions of identity compatibility and anticipated fit influence students’ university choices. It was found that relatively disadvantaged students scored lower on identity compatibility, and that low scores on identity compatibility were associated with lower anticipated fit at a local selective (Study 1) or highly selective (Study 2) university. Anticipated fit, in turn, predicted the type of university to which participants wanted to apply; those who anticipated fitting in more at selective universities were more likely to apply to higher status universities. These relations were significant while controlling for academic achievement. Together, these studies suggest that social identity factors play a relevant role in explaining higher education choices among low-status group members.
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Measures of social identity threat and identity incompatibility are significantly related to the ranking of universities to which working-class college students in the United Kingdom apply.
“Measures of social identity threat and a perception of identity incompatibility have been found to be significantly related to the ranking of universities to which working-class college students in the United Kingdom apply, suggesting they are part of the reason why such students apply to lower ranked universities than their grades warrant (Nieuwenhuis, Manstead, & Easterbrook, 2019).”
From Tackling Educational Inequalities with Social Psychology: Identities, Contexts, and Interventions (2021) · cites this paper as Nieuwenhuis, Manstead, & Easterbrook, 2019
Internal psychological mechanisms through which social identity threat and identity incompatibility impede educational progress include reduced or insecure belonging, dampened motivation, increased anxiety, reduced working memory capacity, depleted cognitive resources, increased stress, defensive coping responses, and inhibited self-regulation.
“These include a reduced or insecure sense of belonging (Cohen & Garcia, 2008;Nieuwenhuis et al., 2019;Rosenthal, Levy, London, Lobel, & Bazile, 2013), dampened motivation (Thoman et al., 2013) and achievement goals (Smith, 2004), increased anxiety, reduced working memory capacity (Spencer et al., 2016), depleted cognitive resources (Lyons et al., 2018), increased stress, defensive coping responses”
From Tackling Educational Inequalities with Social Psychology: Identities, Contexts, and Interventions (2021) · cites this paper as Nieuwenhuis et al., 2019
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The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour
Manstead, A. S. R. (2018) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjso.12251 · Cited by 831 · see citing works
“Evidence of this deterrence comes from research conducted by Nieuwenhuis, Easterbrook, and Manstead (2018).”
ResultSelf-citationTackling Educational Inequalities with Social Psychology: Identities, Contexts, and Interventions
Easterbrook, M. J., & Hadden, I. R. (2021) · Social Issues and Policy Review · doi:10.1111/sipr.12070 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
Self-citationIdentities in Context: How Social Class Shapes Inequalities in Education
Easterbrook, M. J., Hadden, I. R., & Nieuwenhuis, M. (2019) · The Social Psychology of Inequality · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28856-3_7 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
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“(2) The Identification with University (IwU) [54] measures the extent to which students perceive being a university student is consistent with their social identity.”
- Authors
- Nieuwenhuis, M., Manstead, A. S. R., & Easterbrook, M. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Twente (NL)
- Cardiff University (GB)
- University of Sussex (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Nieuwenhuis, Marlon
- Venue
- Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2019-04
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 371-389
- ISSN
- 1368-4302 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7188
- OpenAlex
- W2914558026
- Cited by
- 45
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 11.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Locations
- Group Processes & Intergroup Relations (publishedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (acceptedVersion)
- Sussex Research Online (University of Sussex) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- University of Twente Research Information (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Career Development and Diversity
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- social identity, identity compatibility, college choice, higher education access, disadvantaged students, selective colleges, social status, intergroup relations, academic performance
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