How Personal and Familial Narratives Affect the Decision Making of Mature-Aged First-in-Family Students Pursuing University

Mature-age students who are the first in their family to attend university have navigated a challenging road to higher education. The aim of the present study was to understand the influence and interaction of familial and personal stories of this cohort and their choices about university study – why they initially did not go after high school, and what brought them to university years later. Six first-year students at an Australian university completed qualitative interviews which were thematically analysed. Findings indicated that early in life families discouraged higher education, but students were able to integrate these familial stories with new, life-affirming, personal stories. Students’ choice to attend university was related to psychological capital and agentic abilities via the stories of optimism, hope, efficacy and resilience. Familial stories acted as forerunners to resilience-building for envisioning life-affirming stories about future opportunities for university study and for stability a university degree represented.