Poster #10 - A Motivation Treatment to Facilitate Academic Success for First-Generation Students Enrolled in an Online Course

• In Event: 15.062 - MTCC Poster Session One
  In Poster Session: 15.062-2 - Contemporary Issues in Motivation Research Models of Motivation: Theoretical and Applied Advances

Abstract

First-generation (FG) college students are a rapidly growing student population who face unique obstacles to their academic success compared to continuing-generation (CG) students. This study examines the efficacy of an attribution-based motivation treatment (attributional retraining: AR) for improving academic performance and persistence for FG students who varied in perceived academic control (PAC), a known academic risk moderator of AR treatment effects. In a longitudinal pre-post randomized treatment field study (n = 1120), AR (vs. no-AR) was administered to students who differed in generation-status (FG, CG) and PAC (low, high) in a two-semester online course. For low control-FG students, AR improved posttreatment test performance and final grade by one letter grade, and reduced the likelihood of course drop-out by nearly 50%.

Authors

• Robert Paul Dryden, University of Manitoba

• Raymond P. Perry, University of Manitoba

• Jeremy M. Hamm, Concordia University

• Patti C. Parker, University of Manitoba

• Judy Chipperfield, University of Manitoba

• Tyler Kempe