Perceptions of misalignment and the academic achievement of underrepresented groups in higher education

The concepts of cultural congruity, cultural mismatch, and identity incompatibility describe the misalignment of university students from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. These concepts are related to each other, but have been used in different, relatively independent literatures. Furthermore, the literature predicts that misalignment contributes to achievement gaps between majority and underrepresented students. However, studies testing the entire mediation model are relatively scarce. In a sample of 558 first-year university students, we investigated the relations between belonging to an underrepresented group (ethnic minority, first-generation, low subjective income), several misalignment indicators, and academic achievement. We found strongest support for the role of identity incompatibility for first-generation students. Other misalignment indicators were also related to achievement and/or belonging to an underrepresented group, but did not show consistent (indirect) effects. This paper shows the added value of an integrative approach to investigating the impact of misalignment in higher education.