Self-Regulatory and Motivational Factors Contributing to Community College Students’ Persistence

Graduate Student Investigator: Brandilynn Villarreal, M.A.

This project addresses the personality and behavioral characteristics of those students who attend a community college immediately after high school. Specifically, we are trying to find out how these characteristics affect the likelihood of achieving their educational goals (i.e., earn an A.A., transfer to a 4-year college). Research in this area is particularly needed regarding first-generation and underrepresented college students who have little guidance from their families and often come from neighborhoods with fewer resources and less successful high schools (e.g., fewer or no AP classes offered). These students may also be more burdened by distractions from employment and family obligation duties that negatively affect persistence and college completion rates. This study will investigate the motivational factors and coping styles that lead to continued engagement with academic goals despite social, economic, and educational disadvantages. We will specifically focus on differences associated with ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status in goal setting and goal engagement regarding postsecondary education. Our project will help to understand the motivational and self-regulatory factors that enable students to be successful in postsecondary education. The findings will also help design intervention strategies to make community colleges more effective educational institutions by lowering drop-out rates and increasing the proportion of students who successfully transfer to 4-year colleges.