The Role of College Students' Perceptions of Effort Source on Self-Evaluations of Academic Ability

In the present studies I investigated whether college students’ perceptions of effort source influenced their perceptions of the relation between levels of their own effort and ability in mathematics. In Study 1 (N = 210), I found using hypothetical vignettes that perceptions of task-elicited effort (i.e., effort that arises due to the subjective difficulty or ease of the task) led to perceptions of an inverse relation between one’s effort and ability, and perceptions of self-initiated effort (i.e., effort that arises due to one’s own motivation or lack of motivation) led to perceptions of a positive relation between one’s effort and ability, consistent with my hypotheses and prior research. In Study 2 (N = 160), participants completed an academic task and I used open-ended questions to manipulate their perceptions of effort source. I found that participants in the task-elicited condition endorsed no overall relation between effort and ability, and participants in the self-initiated condition endorsed an overall inverse relation, which is inconsistent with my hypotheses and prior research. Possible explanations for the findings, as well as broader theoretical and educational implications are discussed.

Cultural and Social Cognitive Predictors of Academic Satisfaction in Southeast Asian American College Students

This study examined the predictive utility of Lent’s (2004) social cognitive model of well-being in the context of academic satisfaction with a sample of Southeast Asian American college students using a cross-sectional design. Path analysis was used to examine the role of perceived parental trauma, perceived parental acculturative stress, intergenerational family conflict, and social cognitive predictors to academic satisfaction. Participants were 111 Southeast Asian American and 111 East Asian American college students who completed online measures. Contrary to expectations, none of the contextual cultural variables were significant predictors of academic satisfaction. Also contrary to expectations, academic support and self-efficacy were not directly linked to academic satisfaction and outcome expectation was not linked to goal progress. Other social cognitive predictors were related directly and indirectly to academic satisfaction, consistent with prior research. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are addressed.

Ready for Transition: Factors that facilitate transfer to undergraduate engineering programs among Black African and American students

This study examines the factors facilitating the transfer admission of students broadly classified as Black from a single community college into a selective engineering college. The work aims to further research on STEM preparation and performance for students of color, as well as scholarship on increasing access to four-year institutions from two-year schools. Factors illuminating Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minority (URM) student pathways through Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) degree programs have often been examined through large-scale quantitative studies. However, this qualitative study complements quantitative data through demographic questionnaires, as well as semi-structured individual and group. The backgrounds and voices of diverse Black transfer students in four-year engineering degree programs were captured through these methods. Major findings from this research include evidence that community college faculty, peer networks, and family members facilitated transfer. Other results distinguish Black African from Black American transfers; included in these distinctions are depictions of different K-12 schooling experiences and differences in how participants self-identified. The findings that result from this research build upon the few studies that account for expanded dimensions of student diversity within the Black population. Among other demographic data, participants’ countries of birth and years of migration to the U.S. (if applicable) are included. Interviews reveal participants’ perceptions of factors impacting their educational trajectories in STEM and subsequent ability to transfer into a competitive undergraduate engineering program. This study is inclusive of, and reveals an important shifting demographic within the United States of America, Black Africans, who represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the immigrant population.

Predictors of feelings of depression among Asian American college students

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between various collegiate experiences including substance use, religiosity, campus climate, academic life, social life, self-concept, satisfaction with college, and perceived feelings of depression among Asian American college students compared to other racial groups. Employing Astin’s (1993) I-E-O model, the study utilized the 2008 Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) the Freshman Survey (TFS) and the follow up College Senior Survey (CSS) in 2012 with the final sample of 10,710 students including 951 Asian American students. Descriptive analysis, cross-tabulations, blocked hierarchical multiple regression analysis, the equality of the unstandardized beta coefficients from the regression analyses, and a one-way ANOVA were conducted for the data analysis. Asian American students who are female, from low SES backgrounds, academically less achieved, frequent substance users, less religiously involved, and less satisfied with overall college experiences showed higher levels of feeling depressed. For the rate of feeling depressed across racial groups, Asian American college students showed the highest rate of feeling depressed while White students reported the lowest rate of feeling depressed. For Asian American college students, feeling depressed in high school, hours spent per week on studying and homework, and self-confidence in intellectual ability were the most significant predictors of feelings of depression while drinking beer, drinking liquor, spirituality, failing to complete homework on time, hours spent per week on socializing, self rated self-confidence in social ability, and satisfaction with overall college experiences were significant predictors of feelings of depression. Asian American college students spent the longest hours on studying and homework, reported the highest GPA, but showed the lowest self-confidence on intellectual ability. For all four racial groups, feeling depressed in high school and self-confidence in intellectual ability were significant predictors of feelings of depression in common. Implications for practice and directions for future research emphasize the need for better understanding the unique cultural background and impact of academic life associated with feelings of depression among Asian American college students and developing customized psycho-educational and outreach programs to meet unique needs for psychological well-being for each racial group on campus.

A Social Cognitive Approach to Coping with Acculturative Stress in International Students

The present study employed a cross-sectional design to test a model of coping with acculturative stress in an international student sample. Drawing from Lent’s (2004) social cognitive model of restorative well-being, several direct and mediated paths were hypothesized to predict (negatively) acculturative stress and (positively) life satisfaction. Behavioral acculturation and behavioral enculturation (Kim & Omizo, 2006) were also examined as predictors of coping with acculturative stress among international students. Using a self-report survey, participants’ ratings of acculturative stress, life satisfaction, social support, behavioral acculturation, behavioral enculturation, and coping self-efficacy were assessed. The results revealed that the variables of the model explained 16% of the variance in acculturative stress and 27% of the variance in life satisfaction. A final model, including the use of modification indices, provided good fit to the data. Findings also suggested that coping self-efficacy was a direct predictor of acculturative stress, and that behavioral acculturation and coping self-efficacy were direct predictors of students’ life satisfaction. Limitations, future research, and practical implications are discussed.

The Role of Attachment in a Social Cognitive Model of Social Domain Satisfaction in College Students

The study examined a modified social cognitive model of domain satisfaction (Lent, 2004). In addition to social cognitive variables and trait positive affect, the model included two aspects of adult attachment, attachment anxiety and avoidance. The study extended recent research on well-being and satisfaction in academic, work, and social domains. The adjusted model was tested in a sample of 454 college students, in order to determine the role of adult attachment variables in explaining social satisfaction, above and beyond the direct and indirect effects of trait positive affect. Confirmatory factor analysis found support for 8 correlated factors in the modified model: social domain satisfaction, positive affect, attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, social support, social self-efficacy, social outcome expectations, and social goal progress. Three alternative structural models were tested to account for the ways in which attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance might relate to social satisfaction. Results of model testing provided support for a model in which attachment avoidance produced only an indirect path to social satisfaction via self-efficacy and social support. Positive affect, avoidance, social support, social self-efficacy, and goal progress each produced significant direct or indirect paths to social domain satisfaction, though attachment anxiety and social outcome expectations did not contribute to the predictive model. Implications of the findings regarding the modified social cognitive model of social domain satisfaction were discussed.

COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD SEEKING PROFESSIONAL HELP: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CLASS, CLASSISM, AND STIGMA

Research on attitudes toward seeking professional help among college students has examined the influence of social class and stigma. This study tested 4 theoretically and empirically derived structural equation models of college students’ attitudes toward seeking counseling with a sample of 2230 incoming university students. The models represented competing hypotheses regarding the manners in which objective social class, subjective social class, classism, public stigma, stigma by close others, and self-stigma related to attitudes toward seeking professional help. Findings supported the social class direct and indirect effects model, as well as the notion that classism and stigma domains could explain the indirect relationships between social class and attitudes. Study limitations, future directions for research, and implications for counseling are discussed.

Counseling Self-Efficacy and the Relational Efficacy Model

Relation-inferred self-efficacy (RISE), a relatively new concept, is defined as a target individual’s beliefs about how an observer, often a relationship partner, perceives the target’s ability to perform certain actions successfully. Along with self-efficacy (i.e., one’s beliefs about his or her own ability) and other-efficacy (i.e., one’s beliefs about his or her partner’s ability), RISE makes up a three part system of interrelated efficacy beliefs known as the relational efficacy model (Lent & Lopez, 2002). Previous research has shown this model to be helpful in understanding how relational dyads, including coach-athlete, advisor-advisee, and romantic partners, contribute to the development of self-efficacy beliefs. The clinical supervision dyad (i.e., supervisor-supervisee), is another context in which relational efficacy beliefs may play an important role. This study investigated the relationship between counseling self-efficacy, RISE, and other-efficacy within the context of clinical supervision. Specifically, it examined whether supervisee perceptions about how their supervisor sees their counseling ability (RISE) related to how supervisees see their own counseling ability (counseling self-efficacy), and what moderates this relationship. The study also sought to discover the degree to which RISE mediated the relationship between supervisor working alliance and counseling self-efficacy. Data were collected from 240 graduate students who were currently enrolled in counseling related fields, working with at least one client, and receiving regular supervision. Results demonstrated that years of experience and RISE predicted counseling self-efficacy and that the relationship between RISE and counseling self-efficacy was, as expected, moderated by other-efficacy. Contrary to expectations, however, counseling experience and level of client difficulty did not moderate the relationship between RISE and counseling self-efficacy. These findings suggest that the relationship between RISE and counseling self-efficacy was stronger when supervisees saw their supervisors as capable therapists. Furthermore, RISE was found to fully mediate the relationship between supervisor working alliance and counseling self-efficacy. Future research directions and implications for training and supervision are discussed.