Motivation andAmong Working

FayeGeorge Mason

Self-RegulationCollege StudentsHuieUniversity

AbstractStudents make a difficult shift when transitioning to college, where they face increased demands for self-regulated learning and effective time-management, especially for students who balance both work and school. This study explores numerous aspects of motivation (goal orientation, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction), self-regulated learning (time-management, help-seeking, study strategies), academic self-handicapping practices, work status, and academic performance among 592 first year college students. Surveys were completed by students at three time periods within their first two semesters. Results indicate that academic self-handicapping was positively correlated with performance-avoidance goal orientations and negatively correlated with school satisfaction. Time studying was positively associated with school, and employed students used more learning strategies than unemployed students.

Introduction/Rationale Nationally, 1 in 4 college freshmen (27%) do not

return for their Sophomore year, and only about 50% eventually graduate

Knowledge about the motivational predictors of successful student performance and retention can help colleges implement better assessment and intervention strategies for retaining students

Studies on motivation and self-regulation in college students have typically a) involved homogenous Caucasian samples, b) not been longitudinal, c) not examined specifically students who work

MotivationMotivation = GOALS x EMOTIONS x

PERSONAL AGENCY BELIEFS (Ford, 1992) Goals: Desired outcomes

Mastery- Developing competence Approach-performance- showing ability and performing well Approach-avoidance- concealing and preventing failure by not trying

Self-handicapping- conscious effort to avoid looking incompetent not only to others but also to themselves

Emotions: Feelings toward the goal Life satisfaction: feelings toward life School satisfaction: feelings toward school

Personal Agency Beliefs- personal and environmental confidence Self-efficacy: positive perception of one’s competence

(Chemers et al., 2001)

Self-Regulation Behaviors, cognitions, and motivations that allow goal

attainment Time management: effective management of time

Environment management Effort regulation

Learning Strategies: Effective strategies used to learn and understand material. Critical thinking Help seeking Metacognitive self-regulation

Self-regulated learning has adaptive outcomes (Schunk & Ertmer, 1999)

Method Sample population characteristics

62.5% Female Age M = 18.9 (range 16-46) 62% White, 7% Black, 5% Hispanic, 17% Asian, 9% Other/Mixed 94% 1st sem. Freshman, 4% 2nd sem., 2% Sophomore 54% working (M = 16.5 hrs, SD = 9.5, range = 1-80 hrs) 79% English as native language 49% receive some formal financial aid

Data collected within three time periods 1. T1 (Beginning of the first semester) N = 592

2. T2 (End of the first semester) N = 243 (41%)

3. T3 (End of the second semester) N = 96 (16%)

Materials1. Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire

(T1, T2, T3) (MSLQ; Pintrich et al., 1991)

Learning Strategies Management of Learning Resources Academic Self-Regulation

2. Extended Satisfaction with Life Scale

(T2 and T3) (Alfonso et al., 1996)

general life, school life, and job satisfaction3. The Patterns for Adaptive Learning Scale

(PALS; Midgley et al. 2000) T1, T2, T3

3 Goal orientations Academic Self-Efficacy Academic Self-Handicapping

Results Q1: Are employed high academic achieving students particularly different from those who are unemployed high academic achieving students?

A MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) suggests: Employed and unemployed students are different on certain

levels of self-regulation and motivation, F(9, 491) = 2.61, p < .01 (T1)

See Table 1 Students with a high GPA and students with a low GPA are

different on certain levels of motivation and self-regulation, F(9, 491) = 2.66, p < .01 (T1)

See Table 2 Academically successful working students are significantly

different from unemployed academically successful students on certain levels of motivation and self-regulation F(9, 183) = 4.81, p < .05 (T1).

See Table 3

Table 1. Motivation and Self-Regulation as a Function of Working Status

*p < .05 +p <.10

Working Non Working

M (SD) M (SD)

Metacognitive Self-Regulation

4.44 (.81) 4.32 (.86)

Time Management 4.96 (.84) 4.96 (.93)

Effort Regulation 4.83 (1.06) 4.86 (1.13)

Help Seeking 4.52 (.99) 4.41 (1.07)

Use of Learning Strategies*

4.62 (.67) 4.47 (.68)

Mastery Goal Orientation+

4.29 (.75) 4.23 (.71)

Performance Approach Goal Orientation+

2.68 (1.14) 2.85 (1.12)

Performance Avoidance Goal Orientation+

2.70 (1.02) 3.03 (.99)

Academic Self-Efficacy 4.00 (.74) 3.95 (.75)

Table 2. Motivation and Self-Regulation as a Function of Academic Performance

*p < .05 +p <.10

High GPA Low GPA

M (SD) M (SD)

Metacognitive Self-Regulation

4.45 (.86) 4.34 (.82)

Time Management* 5.12 (.93) 4.87 (.84)

Effort Regulation* 5.08 (1.03) 4.69 (1.10)

Help Seeking 4.40 (1.40) 4.51 (1.03)

Use of Learning Strategies+

4.61 (.71) 4.51 (.65)

Mastery Goal Orientation+

4.34 (.71) 4.22 (.74)

Performance Approach Goal Orientation

2.68 (1.09) 2.82 (1.16)

Performance Avoidance Goal Orientation

2.97 (1.01) 2.96 (1.01)

Academic Self-Efficacy* 4.06 (.71) 3.93 (.76)

Table 3. Motivation and Self-Regulation as a Function of Employment Status (Just Hi GPA Group)

*p < .05 +p <.10

Employed Students Unemployed Students

M (SD) M (SD)

Metacognitive Self-Regulation

4.53 (.81) 4.37 (.91)

Time Management 4.99 (1.13) 4.44 (.79)

Effort Regulation 5.08 (.95) 5.09 (1.11)

Help Seeking* 4.57 (.97) 4.24 (1.08)

Use of Learning Strategies*

4.74 (.71) 4.49 (.69)

Mastery Goal Orientation

4.40 (.75) 4.28 (.68)

Performance Approach Goal Orientation

2.55 (1.08) 2.79 (1.10)

Performance Avoidance Goal Orientation+

2.82 (1.01) 3.10 (.99)

Academic Self-Efficacy 4.05 (.72) 4.07 (.70)

Results Q2: To what extent are amount of time spent at work and amount of time spent studying related with life satisfaction and academic performance?

GPA Life Sat. School Sat. Job Sat.

WorkHrs (T1) -.13* -.09 -.10 -.30*

StudyHrs (T1) .15* .07 .09 -.02

WorkHrs (T2) -.37* -.16 -.04 -.25*

StudyHrs (T2) .21* .10 .16* -.11

Correlations between work hours, study hours, and life satisfaction indicate that work and study time are significantly associated with GPA.

Results indicate that the higher amount of time put into work the lower GPA and satisfaction becomes.

* p < .05

Table 4. (Q3) What motivational and self-regulatory factors are associated with academic self-handicapping?

Academic Self-Handicapping

(T1) (T2)

GPA (T2) -.13* -.24*

Metacognitive self-regulation -.10* -.10

Time management -.40* -.43*

Effort regulation -.45* -.56*

Help seeking -.03 -.09

Learning strategies used -.14* -.11+

Mastery goal Orientation -.17* -.11+

Performance-approach goal orientation .39* .54*

Performance avoidance goal orientation .43* .60*

Academic self-efficacy -.10* .02*

Life satisfaction N/A -.04

Job satisfaction N/A -.16

School satisfaction N/A -.21*

* p < .05

Results Q4: What is the strongest predictor (goals, emotions, self-efficacy, self-regulation, and employment) of academic performance?

Regression analyses reveal that self-regulation predicts academic performance above and beyond the motivation and life satisfaction variables.

Multiple hierarchical regression Model 1 = Motivational Variables

Three goal orientations, academic self efficacy Model 2 = Self-regulatory Variables

Time management, learning strategies Model 3 = Life satisfaction

R R Square F p

Model 1 .24 .06 3.29 .01

Model 2 .41 .17 8.67 .00

Model 3 .18 .03 8.14 .01

Results Q5: Are employed students more likely to engage in self-handicapping than nonworking students?

Two independent samples t-test Results indicate that working students do not engage in more

self handicapping (M = 2.40, SD = .99, NS) than non working students (M = 2.43, SD = 1.03, NS)

Correlations between hours worked with academic self handicapping Results revealed that number of hours worked is NOT

associated with academic self handicapping (r = .01) These results show us that employed students are not

more likely to engage in academic self-handicapping than nonworking students

Longitudinal Analyses Students who practice self-handicapping methods are

more performance oriented in Time 2, than Time 1 The longer a student practices academic self-handicapping

strategies, the more importance they will place on their appearance

Academic Self-Handicapping

(T1) (T2)

GPA (T2) -.13* -.24*

Time management -.40* -.43*

Effort regulation -.45* -.56*

Performance-approach goal orientation .39* .54*

Performance avoidance goal orientation .43* .60*

*p < .05 +p <.10

Longitudinal Analyses cont’

Self-regulation is an even stronger predictor of GPA at the end of the semester than it is at the beginning of the semester

As self-regulated students are getting better grades, the non-self regulated students may be getting even worse grades over time– making the predictive value of self-regulation stronger

R R2 F p

M 1 .24 .06 3.29 .01

M 2 .41 .17 8.67 .00

M 3 .18 .03 8.14 .01

R R2 F p

M 1 .15 .04 2.91 .02

M 2 .24 .06 6.30 .00

M 3 .18 .03 8.14 .01

Time 1

Time 2

Discussion/Implications

These findings generally indicate that the more hours students work, the poorer they do in school

This information may also suggest that universities need to develop special courses or seminars to teach students how to balance work and school life, or helpful self-regulating strategies

Universities may also take this information to thoroughly train professors to emphasize a mastery classroom environment to help students be better self-regulators as well as improve motivation

Properly implementing this information to improve college careers may significantly decrease the college drop out rate

ReferencesAlfonso, V. C., Allison, D. B., Rader, D. E., & Gorman, B. S. (1996). The

extended satisfaction with life scale: Development and psychometric properties. Social Indicators Research, 38, 275-301.

Chemers, M. M., Hu, L., & Garcia, B. F. (2001). Academic self-efficacy and first year college student performance and adjustment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(1), 55-64.

Ford, M. (1992). Motivating humans: Goals, emotions and personal agency beliefs. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications

Kitsantas, A., Gilligan, T. D., & Kamata, A. (2003). College women with eating disorers: Self-regulation, life satisfaction, and positive/negative affect. The Journal of Psychology,134, 381-395.

Midgley, C., Maehr, M.L., Hruda, L., Anderman, E., Anderman, L,. Freeman, K.E., Gheen, M., Kaplan, A., Kumar, R., Middleton, M.K., Nelson, J., Roeser, R., & Urdan, R. (2000). Manual for the patterns of adaptive learning scales. University of Michigan, School of education.

Pintrich, P. R., Smith, D. A., Garcia, T., & McKeachie, W. J. (1991). A manual for the use of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Ann Arbor, MI: The Regents of the University of Michigan.

Schunk, D., & Ertmer, P. (1999). Self-regulatory processes during computer skill acquisition: Goal and self-evaluative influences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(2), 251-260.

Dr. Adam Winsler

Dr. Linda Chrosniak

Dr. Anastasia Kitsantas