Psycho-social as correlates of college adaptive behavior in lower-level undergraduate students

Abstract

This research was a correlational-comparative study. Its objectives were 1) to study the predictive percentage and order of the predictors in terms of the psychological characteristics and situational factors on the college adaptive behavior in various types of undergraduate students and 2) to investigate the direct and indirect effects of psychological characteristics and situational factors affecting the college adaptive behavior of the undergraduate students. This research used a multi-stage sampling method. The samples were 636 undergraduate students, 166 of whom were male (26.10%) and 470 of whom were female (73.90%). The average age was 20 years and 2 months, 179 undergraduate students were from the Faculty of Education (28.10%), 231 undergraduate students were from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (36.30%), and 226 undergraduate students were from the Faculty of Management Science (35.50%).

There were 5 groups of variables as follows. 1) Dependent variable group was college adaptive behavior, consisted of 3 variables, namely learning preparation behavior, self-determination behavior in learning, and academic exploration and exploitation behavior. 2) Psychological trait group consisted of 3 variables, namely core self-evaluation, achievement motivation and stress coping ability. 3) Situational factor group consisted of 4 variables, namely love and reasoning oriented child rearing practice, family support, good role model from senior student, and good peer influence. 4) Psychological state group consisted of 3 variables, namely favorable attitude towards learning, future orientation and self-control in adaptive learning, and perceived behavioral control in adaptive learning. 5) Biosocial characteristics and important background. There were 13 measures and one biosocial background questionnaire. Most of the measures were in the form of summated rating scales. The measures were verified for their quality with Item discrimaination, Item-total correlation, Reliability and Confirmatory factor analysis. The reliability score of each measure ranged between 0.62 to 0.90. There were three hypotheses which were analyzed by Multiple Regression Analysis and Path analysis. The important findings were as follows.

First, MRA using psychological trait and situational factors as predictors of the psychological state variables indicated the supportive results for hypothesis 1 as follows. 1) For favorable attitude towards learning, the supportive results were found both in the total group and in other 16 subgroups. In the total group, all 7 predictors could predict favorable attitude towards learning for 43.10%. The important predictors were achievement motivation, good peer influence and love and reasoning oriented child rearing practice. 2) For future orientation and self-control in adaptive learning, the supportive results were found both in the total group and in other 18 subgroups. In the total group, all 7 predictos could predict future orientation and self-control in adaptive learning for 45.80%. The important predictors were achievement motivation, good peer influence, love and reasoning oriented child rearing practice and core self-evaluation. and 3) For perceived behavioral control in adaptive learning, the supportive results were found only in the undergraduate students from Faculty of Humanities and Social Science. All 7 predictors could predict perceived behavioral control in adaptive learning in this group for 34.70%. The important predictors were achievement motivation, core self-evaluation, good peer influence and love and reasoning oriented child rearing practice.

Second, MRA using psychological trait, situational factors, and psychological states as predictors of college adaptive behaviors indicated the supportive results for hypothesis 2 as follows. 1) For learning preparation behavior, the supportive results were found both in the total group and in other 8 subgroups. In the total group, all 10 predictors could predict learning preparation behavior for 31.20%. The important predictors were perceived behavioral control in adaptive learning, stress coping ability, core self-evaluation, good role model from senior student and favorable attitude towards learning. 2) For self-determination behavior in learning, the supportive results were found 4 subgroups. The most important subgroup was the undergraduate students from Faculty of Education which all 10 precdictors could predict self-determination behavior in learning for 33.80%. The important predictors were favorable attitude towards learning, core self-evaluation, good peer influence and perceived behavioral control in adaptive learning. And 3) For academic exploration and exploitation behavior, the supportive results were found in 10 subgroups. The most important subgroup was undergraduate students with high educated mother, all 10 predictors could predict academic exploration and exploitation behavior for 47.70%. The important predictors were achievement motivation, perceived behavioral control in adaptive learning, favorable attitude towards learning, and core self-evaluation.

Third, the results from path analysis indicated that the psychological trait latent variable and situational factor latent variable had indirect effects on the college adaptive behavior latent variavle through the psychological state latent variable. Moreover, the psychological trait latent variable had direct effect on the situational factor latent variable.

Finally, the at-risk groups of the undergraduate students were 1) low GPA students 2) students from the Faculty of Management Science and 3) male students. It can be suggested that they should be heightened on need for achievement motivation, perceived behavioral control in adaptive learning, core self-evaluation, favorable attitude towards learning and good peer influence.

In the future, a training package should be developed based on the antecedents of college adaptive behavior found in this research. An experiment should be done to evaluate the training package in order to improve college adaptive behavior.