Self-regulation in college: The influence of self-efficacy, need satisfaction, and stress on GPA, persistence, and satis
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Self-regulation in college: The influence of self-efficacy, need satisfaction, and stress on GPA, persistence, and satisfaction Justin Travis 1
&
James Bunde 1
Accepted: 23 September 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Recently, management scholars have applied the transactional theory of stress to distinguish between challenging and hindering stressors, and established their differential relationships with an assortment of key outcomes. Additionally, needs-based motivational theories (e.g., self-determination theory) have been increasingly applied to studies of work and school motivation. This study integrates the challenge-hindrance distinction with need satisfaction and self-efficacy in a model predicting important academic outcomes in a representative sample of college students (N = 383). The hypothesized model demonstrated excellent fit with the data, and although not all structural relationships were statistically significant, meaningful effect sizes were estimated in the expected direction for nearly all relationships. Collectively, predictors accounted for substantial portions of variance in endof-semester GPA (19%), school satisfaction (65%), hours withdrawn (6%), and transfer intentions (11%). Further, need satisfaction predicted students’ intention to persist beyond the effects of academic self-efficacy and stress perceptions. Taken together, these results support the relevance of self-regulatory theories to academic functioning, and argue for their inclusion in educational policy and work/school design research. Keywords Self-determination . Self-efficacy . Academic success . Student retention
Introduction Many U. S. college students negotiate significant nonacademic responsibilities alongside their formidable academic requirements. Given these inherently challenging circumstances, it is imperative for researchers and educators to better understand the extent, nature, and consequences of collegiate stress, and—to the extent possible—to identify and incorporate only those academic expectations and demands that best serve the student (i.e., her experience, development, learning, and goals). In short, even if some stress is inevitable, it is critical to investigate whether some might not also be better than others—with an eye toward the eventual construction of more effective (and potentially less aversive) collegiate environments. The primary purpose of the current study, then, is to contribute to the relevant literature by evaluating
* Justin Travis [email protected] 1
University of South Carolina Upstate, 800 University Way, Spartanburg, SC 29303, USA
the possibility of differential academic impact for two fundamentally different kinds of stress. Unsurprisingly, most empirical studies on the impact of stress have looked for (and found) undesirable effects on important outcomes. For instance, a meta-analysis of more than 100 published studies reported negative associations between work demand stressors (e.g., role ambiguity) and job performance
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