First-Generation College Students’ Academic Challenges Understood Through the Lens of Expectancy Value Theory in an Introductory Psychology Course

Goldman, Jacqueline; Heddy, Benjamin C.; Cavazos, Jenel T.

doi:10.1177/0098628320964787

Cited by 12 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Further, what is also of interest is that there were no significant differences via generation status in task values. Previous research has found that FGCS have higher cost value than non-FGCS (Goldman et al, 2020) but that was not corroborated in the current study. Given that the participants in this study were from a fall section of general psychology courses, of which have a high population of first semester students, a possibility is that the cost and stressors of higher education have yet to develop.…”

Section: Fgcs and Non-fgcscontrasting

confidence: 99%

Emotions, values, and engagement: Understanding motivation of first-generation college students.

Goldman¹,

Cavazos²,

Heddy³

et al. 2024

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology

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The current study is an initial exploration of the relationship of academic emotions and task values to first-generation college students and to explore the relation of these generational differences to a particular form of deep engagement represented by transformative experience (TE; i.e., transformation of the way students see and experience the world as a consequence of learning school content; Pugh, Educational Psychologist, 2011, 46, 107-121). Positive and negative emotions, along with task values, toward material have been shown to lead to different levels of engagement. Data were collected from undergraduate students in introductory psychology courses (N = 506). The results of this study suggest that intrinsic, utility, and achievement values positively predicted engagement in TE. We also found that first-generation college students experienced significantly more negative emotions than continuing generation students. The theoretical implications of these results and future applications are discussed.

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Section: Fgcs and Non-fgcscontrasting

confidence: 99%

Emotions, values, and engagement: Understanding motivation of first-generation college students.

Goldman¹,

Cavazos²,

Heddy³

et al. 2024

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To that effect, the purpose of this direct focus on FG and NFG populations is to explore if there are aspects of higher education entry factors that appear to be more influential in predicting performance trends for students in these two broad groups. The benefit of this focus is the potential to identify domains of influence in postsecondary success that are unique for FG learners, leading to potential intervention developments to meet needs for FG learners (see Goldman et al, 2020;Harackiewicz et al, 2014).…”

Section: Generational Status and Higher Education Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Assessment of Cognitive Skills, Self-Regulated Learning Skills, and Attitudes Toward Education Predict University Success at Graduation

Cassady

Finch

Heath³

2022

JPSS

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Considerable research has been conducted on the incremental or individual influences of cognitive skills, self-regulated learning skills, and attitudes toward education on the success of learners in many levels of educational inquiry. In addition, much work has been focused on predicting student success in the first year of college, or examining factors that promote retention only for the second semester or second academic year. This study expands the focus by specifically examining the interactive nature of these three broad domains of student characteristics over the course of the entire students’ experience in higher education. Specifically, this study examines seven years of institutional data exploring the predictive utility of measures of students’ cognitive skills, self-regulated learning skills, attitudes toward education, and academic anxiety prior to the start of their first semester on graduating GPA for anyone completing a degree within 6 years of matriculation. The results demonstrate that while all of the variables were instrumental in explaining overall university success, the best explanation of the data was achieved through a partial moderated mediation model. Furthermore, the data illustrated that the patterns of these relationships for first generation and non-first generation students differed. The results are supportive of a model of early assessment to identify areas of need for learners to promote more adaptive coping strategies at the start of the university experience to support optimal graduation outcomes for both first generation and non-first generation learners.

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“…Our study extends the literature in a critical way in that we examined motivation, engagement, and achievement across generation status at the domain-general level. Prior studies guided by the SEVT primarily examined these constructs in specific academic domains when accounting for generations status (e.g., Part et al, 2020;Goldman et al, 2021Goldman et al, , 2022. While this work provides useful information about domain-specific motivation, engagement, and achievement between generation status, less is known about college students' expectancy, task value, and engagement for school in general and their impact on school outcomes, taking into account generation status.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential relations among expectancy, task value, engagement, and academic performance: The role of generation status

Edwards

Dai

2023

Front. Educ.

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IntroductionWe investigated differences in domain-general expectancy, value, and engagement in school by generation status and how the relationship among these constructs and academic performance differ by generation status.MethodsA total of 573 college students enrolled in introductory psychology courses participated in the study. We collected data on generation status, expectancy-value beliefs, school engagement, and official GPA data from participants, tested measurement invariance of expectancy-value beliefs and engagement between first-generation college students (FGCS) and continuing generation college students (CGCS), and conducted multigroup modeling to understand the differential relations of expectancy-value, engagement, and GPA between the two groups.ResultsWe discovered that the latent mean of expectancy beliefs differed significantly by generation status, with FGCS reporting higher expectancy than CGCS. There were no differences in the latent mean of task value. Multigroup structural equation modeling revealed that the effect of expectancy-value motivation on behavioral engagement was similar across groups, but its effect on cognitive engagement was greater for the FGCS than for the CGCS. For both groups, expectancy impacted academic performance via behavioral engagement. Finally, neither expectancy-value motivation nor cognitive engagement directly predicted academic performance for either group.DiscussionThe findings have important theoretical implications for understanding motivation and achievement of FGCS and CGCS and critical practical implications regarding undergraduate education.

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First-Generation College Students’ Academic Challenges Understood Through the Lens of Expectancy Value Theory in an Introductory Psychology Course

Cited by 12 publications

References 68 publications

Emotions, values, and engagement: Understanding motivation of first-generation college students.

Emotions, values, and engagement: Understanding motivation of first-generation college students.

Early Assessment of Cognitive Skills, Self-Regulated Learning Skills, and Attitudes Toward Education Predict University Success at Graduation

Differential relations among expectancy, task value, engagement, and academic performance: The role of generation status

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