Self-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Parenting, and Motivational Factors

Abstract

Anecdotal evidence suggests an increase in entitled attitudes and behaviors of youth in school and college settings. Using a newly developed scale to assess ''academic entitlement'' (AE), a construct that includes expectations of high grades for modest effort and demanding attitudes towards teachers, this research is the first to investigate the phenomenon systematically. In two separate samples of ethnically diverse college students comprised largely of East and Southeast Asian American, followed by Caucasians, Latinos, and other groups (total N = 839, age range 18-25 years), we examined the personality, parenting, and motivational correlates of AE. AE was most strongly related to exploitive attitudes towards others and moderately related to an overall sense of entitlement and to narcissism. Students who reported more academically entitled attitudes perceived their parents as exerting achievement pressure marked by social comparison with other youth and materially rewarding good grades, scored higher than their peers in achievement anxiety and extrinsic motivation, and engaged in more academic dishonesty. AE was not significantly associated with GPA.

Entitlement Attitudes Predict Students’ Poor Performance in Challenging Academic Conditions

“…According to Greenberger et al (2008), many educators complain that students expect high grades in exchange for just moderate effort, have unrealistic expectations towards academic staff, or demand that lecturers accommodate their needs. Despite such concerns, and the belief that students' sense of entitlement is greater than in the past (Campbell, Bonacci, Shelton, Exline, & Bushman, 2004;Capron, 2004;Moses & Moses-Hrushovski, 1990), there is little evidence that entitlement attitudes, if they are indeed on the rise, are associated with measureable academic outcomes.…”

“…According to Greenberger, Lessard, Chen and Farruggia (2008), many educators complain that students expect high grades in exchange for just moderate effort, have unrealistic expectations towards academic staff, or demand that lecturers accommodate their needs. Such expectations seem to represent feelings of excessive entitlement; indeed, the term "academic entitlement" has been used to refer to students' expectations of desired outcomes in an academic environment that do not realistically match their own efforts (Chowning & Campbell, 2009).…”

Academic Entitlement in Pharmacy Education

“…3 Academic entitlement is more than just a generalized sense of entitlement expressed in the academic domain. 4 Dubovsky first described academic entitlement in medical education as student attitudes revolving around 5 facets. 5 First, knowledge is a right and students should receive it with minimal exertion and discomfort.…”

“…The correlations all suggest that students with academic entitlement attitudes may find success and development in college more difficult because these variables are indicative of effort and college achievement. 10 Popular conjecture among educators is that parental practices that over-inflate self-esteem encourage entitlement behavior; however, Greenberger 4 reported a negative association between academic entitlement and self-esteem. Those with higher self-esteem exhibit fewer academic entitlement tendencies.…”

“…This is particularly strong when parents overtly compare their son's or daughter's performance with that of student peers. 4 Students' worth and value become tied to school performance, thereby exerting pressure to obtain high grades regardless of the methods used. Parents have a strong desire to see their children succeed and they contribute to their children's personal and professional development.…”