Do Reasons for Attending College Affect Academic Outcomes?: A Test of a Motivational Model From a Self-Determination Theory Perspective

A survey of 2,520 college students was conducted to test relationships between academic success and college student motivational orientation, conceptualized from a self-determination theory (SDT) perspective, while also considering the moderating effects of background characteristics such as gender, socioeconomic status, race/ ethnicity, and institutional type. Findings indicated that going to college to fulfill intrinsic motivation needs for autonomy and competence was positively associated with intention to persist and GPA but that motivation geared toward the fulfillment of relatedness needs had a more nuanced relationship to the outcome variables. Implications for recognizing the importance of motivational orientation in student affair research, theory, and practice are provided.

[1]  James C. Blackburn.  The Shape of the River , 1999 .

[2]  J. Côté,et al.  Student Motivations, Learning Environments, and Human Capital Acquisition: Toward an Integrated Paradigm of Student Development. , 1997 .

[3]  Douglas A. Guiffrida,et al.  The African American Student Experience at Predominantly White Colleges: Implications for School and College Counselors , 2006 .

[4]  Valery Chirkov.  A cross-cultural analysis of autonomy in education , 2009 .

[5]  R. Curren.  A Companion to the Philosophy of Education , 2003 .

[6]  Glenn Gamst,et al.  Applied Multivariate Research: Design and Interpretation , 2005 .

[7]  J. González.  Assessment Practice in Student Affairs: An Applications Manual , 2002 .

[8]  E. Deci,et al.  The "What" and "Why" of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior , 2000 .

[9]  J. Schelten,et al.  Measurements of persistence length and temperature dependence of the radius of gyration in bulk atactic polystyrene , 1974 .

[10]  E. Deci,et al.  A motivational approach to self: integration in personality. , 1990, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[11]  Julian R. Betts,et al.  The Determinants of Undergraduate Grade Point Average: The Relative Importance of Family Background, High School Resources, and Peer Group Effects , 1999 .

[12]  P. Bentler,et al.  Comparative fit indexes in structural models. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[13]  David J. Solomon,et al.  Conducting Web-based Surveys. , 2001 .

[14]  Nathan R. Kuncel,et al.  The Validity of Self-Reported Grade Point Averages, Class Ranks, and Test Scores: A Meta-Analysis and Review of the Literature , 2005 .

[15]  Shannon K. Gilmartin,et al.  Assessing Response Rates and Nonresponse Bias in Web and Paper Surveys , 2003 .

[16]  Douglas A. Guiffrida,et al.  The Black Student Experience at Predominantly White Colleges: Implications for School and College Counselors , 2010 .

[17]  B. Byrne.  Structural equation modeling with EQS : basic concepts, applications, and programming , 2000 .

[18]  Alan Seidman,et al.  College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success. , 2005 .

[19]  Douglas A. Guiffrida.  Theories of Human Development that Enhance an Understanding of the College Transition Process , 2009, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[20]  S. Schwartz,et al.  Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition , 1987 .

[21]  Kennon M. Sheldon,et al.  All goals are not created equal: An organismic perspective on the nature of goals and their regulation. , 1996 .

[22]  J. Bargh,et al.  The psychology of action : linking cognition and motivation to behavior , 1999 .

[23]  John M. Braxton,et al.  The Influence of Active Learning on the College Student Departure Process , 2000 .

[24]  Patricia L. Hardré,et al.  A motivational model of rural students' intentions to persist in, versus drop out of, high school , 2003 .

[25]  Eric L. Dey.  Working with Low Survey Response Rates: The Efficacy of Weighting Adjustments , 1995 .

[26]  R. Vallerand,et al.  Self-determination and persistence in a real-life setting: toward a motivational model of high school dropout. , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[27]  Douglas A. Guiffrida.  Toward a Cultural Advancement of Tinto's Theory , 2006 .

[28]  Shawn Van Etten,et al.  Big theories revisited , 2004 .

[29]  Nathaniel J. Bray,et al.  How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research (review) , 2006, The Journal of General Education.

[30]  R. Vallerand,et al.  Intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivational styles as predictors of behavior: A prospective study. , 1992 .

[31]  Jessica Dennis,et al.  Reasons to attend college among ethnically diverse college students. , 2006, Cultural diversity & ethnic minority psychology.

[32]  E. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Goal Contents in Self-Determination Theory: Another Look at the Quality of Academic Motivation , 2006 .

[33]  Gloria Crisp,et al.  Student persistence and degree attainment beyond the first year in college: The need for research , 2005 .

[34]  Alexander W. Astin,et al.  Involvement in Learning Revisited: Lessons We Have Learned. , 1999 .

[35]  John H. Schuh,et al.  Assessment Practice in Student Affairs: An Applications Manual , 2000 .

[36]  Frances K. Stage.  Motivation, Academic and Social Integration, and the Early Dropout , 1989 .

[37]  A. Nuñez,et al.  First-Generation Students: Undergraduates Whose Parents Never Enrolled in Postsecondary Education. Statistical Analysis Report. Postsecondary Education Descriptive Analysis Reports. , 1998 .

[38]  Robert M. Davison,et al.  Web-Based Data Collection in China , 2006, J. Glob. Inf. Manag..

[39]  Richard M. Ryan,et al.  Autonomy and Relatedness as Fundamental to Motivation and Education , 1991 .

[40]  E. Deci,et al.  Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation in Education: Reconsidered Once Again , 2001 .

[41]  Corey Greenlaw,et al.  A Comparison of Web-Based and Paper-Based Survey Methods , 2009, Evaluation review.

[42]  Evaluating a Health Education Website: The Case of AlcoholEdu , 2007 .

[43]  Evelyne F. Vallières,et al.  The Academic Motivation Scale: A Measure of Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Amotivation in Education , 1992 .

[44]  Douglas A. Guiffrida,et al.  Development and Validation of the Need for Relatedness at College Questionnaire (NRC-Q) , 2008 .

[45]  R. Reason.  An Examination of Persistence Research Through the Lens of a Comprehensive Conceptual Framework , 2009 .

[46]  E. Deci,et al.  A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. , 1999, Psychological bulletin.