Reasons for Participation in Adult Education Courses: a Multivariate Analysis of Group Differences

Recent research studies on the reasons which individuals have for participating in adult education courses have primarily focused on the development of survey instruments. Little or no data regard ing group differences in expressed reasons have been reported. The purpose of this study was to replicate and expand upon an earlier New Zealand study which employed the Education Partici pation Scale. The EPS was administered to 611 students enrolled in adult education courses at one college in the U. S., and the obtained factor patterns were judged to be similar when compared with those obtained in New Zealand. Mean scores on the derived EPS dimensions for various age-sex groups exhibited noticeable variation and step-wise discriminant analyses produced significant results (p<.01) in determining the parameters of group differences in expressed reasons for participation.