AN EXAMINATION OF NATIVE AND IMMIGRANT STUDENTS’ SOCIAL NETWORKING USING THE COLLEGE SEARCH AND SELECTION PROCESS by Bruce Carlton Neimeyer BS, Allegheny College, 1989 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 1993 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF EDUCATION This dissertation was presented by Bruce Carlton Neimeyer It was defended on April 14, 2009 and approved by Dr. John Weidman, Professor, Administrative and Policy Studies Dr. Charlene Trovato, Clinical Associate Professor, Administrative and Policy Studies Dr. Erik Ness, Assistant Professor, Administrative and Policy Studies Dissertation Director: Dr. James Jacob, Visiting Assistant Professor, Administrative and Policy Studies ii Copyright © by Bruce Carlton Neimeyer 2009 iii AN EXAMINATION OF NATIVE AND IMMIGRANT STUDENTS’ SOCIAL NETWORKING USING THE COLLEGE SEARCH AND SELECTION PROCESS Bruce Carlton Neimeyer, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2009 This dissertation explores the use of formal and informal networks through cyber- and traditional communication methods in the college search and selection process by native and immigrant students to examine various postulates and propositions of social capital theory. In addition, the analysis of cybernetworks used by disadvantaged, college bound immigrant students in the United States furthers our understanding of the equalization of opportunity and/or replication of the social divide found with more traditional social networks. The research methods consisted of archival data analysis with chat room transcripts; six on-line focus groups of 21 first year students from The City University of New York (CUNY); and one on-line survey distributed to 9,240 CUNY first year students. SPSS and NVivo qualitative analytical software were used to conduct frequency, statistical significance, correlation and linear relationships analyses. These results confirm the use of a greater variety of formal and informal networks by students. No preference for either the use of formal or informal networks was found among all respondents. However, immigrant students found that formal networks such as guidance counselors, admissions counselors, high school teacher and current college students provided the most useful information compared to their informal networks. Friends as an informal network were the only exception. These findings support the strength-of-weak-ties and strength-of strong- iv ties postulates. Immigrants show a greater variety of network usage especially through cyber- communication methods. Perhaps as a result, lower SES immigrant students were found to enroll more in four-year CUNY colleges compared to lower SES native students. Lower/middle SES immigrants that used email–mainly with friends– and static college search Web sites had a greater perception than natives of the same SES that their degree would result in their improved SES a finding that challenges the social capital structure postulate. The evidence of the Internets ability to provide equalization of opportunity supports the argument for its more open access in order to address the lack of information among U.S. immigrants. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ IX LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... XII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... XIV 1.0 CHAPTER ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY .................................................................................... 4 1.3 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY ........................................................................... 5 1.4 GUIDING RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES .............................. 10 1.5 DEFINITION OF TERMS ..................................................................................... 13 1.6 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ 16 2.0 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW ................................. 18 2.1 THEORETICAL ASPECTS AND PRINCIPLE PROPOSITIONS OF SOCIAL CAPITAL THEORY ................................................................................................................. 19 2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 34 2.2.1 Social networks in the cyber- environment ......................................................... 34 2.2.2 College search and selection literature ................................................................ 43 2.2.3 Educational attainment literature ........................................................................ 51 2.2.4 Immigrant settlement patterns, incorporation and social mobility ...................... 54 2.3 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ 60 3.0 SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR COLLEGE SEARCH AND SELECTION .................... 62 3.1 STRATEGIC ISSUES AND HYPOTHESES ........................................................ 62 vi 3.2 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY .......................................................................... 63 3.3 METHODS ............................................................................................................. 64 3.3.1 College selection ................................................................................................. 65 3.3.2 Study participants and procedures for obtaining data ......................................... 66 3.3.3 Advisory committee ............................................................................................ 68 3.3.4 Instruments .......................................................................................................... 69 3.3.5 Pilot test of study instruments ............................................................................. 71 3.3.6 IRB approval processes ....................................................................................... 72 3.4 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ 73 4.0 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS .............................................................................. 75 4.1 VARIABLES EMERGING FROM THE LITERATURE ..................................... 75 4.2 CHAT ROOM CONTENT ANALYSIS ................................................................ 76 4.3 ON-LINE FOCUS GROUPS ANALYSIS ............................................................. 78 4.4 ON-LINE SURVEY ANALYSIS ......................................................................... 103 4.4.1 Respondent rate and characteristics .................................................................. 104 4.4.2 Research question #1: Networks and communication methods ........................ 124 4.4.3 Research question #1: Variations by place of origin......................................... 168 4.4.4 Research question #2: Social outcomes of network use ................................... 184 4.5 SUMMARY .......................................................................................................... 208 5.0 OPPORTUNITIES IN CYBERNETWORKS ................................................................. 210 5.1 LIMITATIONS ..................................................................................................... 220 5.2 RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES .......................................................................... 222 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................. 226 vii APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................. 234 APPENDIX C ............................................................................................................................. 236 APPENDIX D ............................................................................................................................. 242 APPENDIX E ............................................................................................................................. 244 APPENDIX F ............................................................................................................................. 245 APPENDIX G ............................................................................................................................. 246 APPENDIX H ............................................................................................................................. 255 APPENDIX I .............................................................................................................................. 256 APPENDIX J .............................................................................................................................. 257 APPENDIX K 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