Gender differences in motivational pathways to college for middle class African American youths.

Abstract

Using a sample of predominantly middle-class African American adolescents and parents (N = 424), the authors tested a path model linking parental expectations for children's future educational attainment, youths' motivation during Grade 11, and youths' subsequent on-time postsecondary educational progress. Parents' expectations were positively related to adolescents' educational attainment aspirations, attainment expectations, utility values (i.e., beliefs about the usefulness of education), and perceptions of racial barriers to upward mobility. Relationships between parents' expectations and youths' aspirations and expectations were mediated by youths' perceptions of parents' expectations. For boys, but not girls, Grade 11 educational expectations and utility values each uniquely predicted college attendance 1 year after high school graduation. In addition, boys' perceptions of racial barriers were negatively related to subsequent postsecondary progress through their influence on values. Findings underscore the importance of academic achievement motivation as a developmental resource for African American boys and suggest that boys are especially likely to benefit from interventions promoting positive motivational beliefs.

Factors Influencing Academic Motivation of Ethnic Minority Students: A Review

“…Two factors, fatalism (Basáñez et al, 2013;Guzmán, Santiago-Rivera, & Hasse, 2005) and perceived racial barriers (Wood et al, 2011), were barriers of motivation in this subcategory. The fourth subcategory is emotions related to learning.…”

“…Ten out of the 45 articles measured motivation in association with performance (Basáñez, Warren, Crano, & Unger, 2013;Butler-Barnes, Estrada-Martinez, Colin, & Jones, 2015;Hill & Wang, 2015;O'Hara, Gibbons, Weng, Gerrard, & Simons, 2012;Ramos & Sanchez, 1995;Thijs & Verkuyten, 2008;Tseng, 2004;Tynes, Del Toro, & Lozada, 2015;Wood, Kurtz-Costes, & Copping, 2011;Yuan, Weiser, & Fischer, 2016). In all of these 10 articles, motivation and performance were positively associated.…”

“…In total, 18 facilitators of motivation were found in this subcategory: perceived consequences and value (McInerney, 1990), personal normative beliefs (McInerney, 1990), affect toward the act/behavior (McInerney, 1990), sense of purpose (McInerney, 2008), task value (Bembenutty, 2007), control beliefs (Bembenutty, 2007), perceived racial barriers (Wood et al, 2011) (Flores, Navarro, & Dewitz, 2008), perceptions of (dis)comfort in environment (Gavala & Flett, 2005), affective commitment to school (Marjoribanks, 1985), (2004) Education aspirations Educational aspirations (varied from "don't know" to "obtaining a bachelor's degree"). In-depth interviews Bembenutty (2007) Students' motivation for a specific course and their use of learning strategies…”

Prospective memory tasks related to goals and concerns are rated as more important by both young and older adults

“…However, there were several reasons to support the tentative prediction that nonstudents would show lower ratings on this motivational variable than college students. First, past research has shown that people who do not attend college or do not plan to attend college score lower on other motivational variables (e.g., motivational beliefs such as resilience, self-confidence, and expectations for oneself) compared to people who attend college or plan to attend (e.g., Carpenter and Fleishman 1987;Eccles et al 2004;Wood et al 2011). Second, unpublished data from several studies in one of our labs revealed that young adult college students assign surprisingly high importance ratings for their real-life prospective memory tasks.…”

A Longitudinal Investigation of African American and Hispanic Adolescents' Educational and Occupational Expectations and Corresponding Attainment in Adulthood

“…Studies have focused on either racial or ethnic group, namely African Americans (Cosby et al, 1976;Wood et al, 2011), or gender patterns (Mello, 2008). Existing studies have also been limited to high school (e.g., Worrell & Hale, 2001) or to examining one time point in adolescence and one time point in adulthood (e.g., Schoon & Polek, 2011).…”