In recent years, research has brought attention to the heterogeneity of resources that first-generation students bring with them to higher education and the factors that assist in these students’ social and academic adjustment to university life. However, few studies have focused on how these students’ early socialization and experiences over the life course influence their adjustment experiences to university. Drawing on Bourdieu’s habitus concept to explore the life histories of first-generation students at a midranked Swedish university, we identify three types of adjustment profiles—Adjusters, Strangers, and Outsiders—and highlight five key factors over the life course that explain why they differ: family resources, early social environment, educational experiences and opportunities, peers, and partners. Our findings suggest that class-related adjustment challenges in college can be traced to different levels of cultural capital acquired during first-generation students’ early socialization but also to capital acquired through sustained contact with cultural capital–abundant social environments throughout their life course, resulting in subtle but consequential habitus adaptations. This study extends previous research in the field by exploring a broader set of social contexts that can spur first-generation students’ cultural capital acquisition before college and facilitate their adjustment to higher education.

近年来，研究引起了人们对第一代学生带来的高等教育资源异质性以及有助于这些学生对大学生活进行社会和学术适应的因素的关注。但是，很少有研究关注这些学生的早期社交和生活经历如何影响他们的大学适应经历。利用布迪厄的惯性概念来探索瑞典中级大学第一代学生的生活史，我们确定了三种类型的调节模式—调节器，陌生人和局外人—并强调了人生过程中的五个关键因素，这些因素解释了他们为何与众不同：家庭资源，早期的社会环境，教育经验和机会，同龄人和合作伙伴。我们的发现表明，与大学有关的与课程相关的调整挑战可以追溯到第一代学生早期社会化过程中获得的不同水平的文化资本，也可以追溯到通过与文化资本的持续接触而获得的资本，即他们一生中丰富的社会环境，从而以微妙但必然的习惯适应。这项研究通过探索更广泛的社会情境来扩展该领域的先前研究，这些社会情境可以激发第一代学生上大学之前的文化资本获取并促进他们适应高等教育。