Empowering low-socioeconomic status parents to support their children in participating in tertiary education: co-created digital resources for diverse parent personas

Increasing the participation of students from low-socioeconomic status (LSES) communities in tertiary education has been a policy focus of successive Australian governments. LSES parents are important influencers, yet are often unsupported in their efforts to help their children. Via two qualitative studies across metropolitan, regional and remote locations in four Australian states, a strengths-based, service-design approach identified four LSES parent personas: magpies, emus, possums and penguin parents. Each parent persona was at a different stage of change, requiring different types of social support. Digital solutions were co-created with LSES parents, reflecting the preferences of each persona. Four additional high-level contributions of this research include identification of the link between stage-of-change and social support requirements, LSES parents’ preference for passive or mid-range levels of digital interactivity, differences in social support needs among LSES parents and the preference for and design of a digital transition-to-tertiary study support portal for LSES parents.