Utility-Value Intervention Promotes Different Processes Over Time: A Long-Term Follow-Up

• In Event: 63.066 - Motivation Interventions: Insights From a Multicomponent Perspective for Theory, Practice, and Research

Abstract

Almost half of students who intend to pursue a post-secondary STEM education abandon these plans before graduating from college. In the present study (N =1,039), we examined whether a utility-value intervention (UVI) implemented in an introductory biology class impacted persistence in the biomedical track throughout college. This intervention, which involved writing three essays across the semester, was based in expectancy-value theory, with the goal of promoting perceived utility value. The intervention improved performance in the course, for all students on average, and especially among underrepresented students.

We found that the UVI promoted persistence in the biomedical track for students who entered the biology course with higher confidence. Specifically, we found direct effects of the UVI, moderated by students’ confidence, on enrollment in a second biology course (b = .18, p = .04) as well persistence in a biomedical major two years post-intervention (b = .21, p = .01). Mediation analyses indicated sequential effects: the UVI prompted confident students to take another critical biology course, and enrollment in this course in turn led to long-term pursuit of a biomedical major (z = 2.06, p = .04). Importantly, this direct intervention effect was mediated by personal focus, an index students’ reflection on the personal relevance of biological topics in the introductory course (z = 2.39, p = .02). The UVI promoted such reflection for all students, and this increased personal focus in turn promoted pursuit of a biomedical education among more confident students. This finding is consistent with the positive expectancy-value interaction posited by expectancy-value theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002; Nagengast et al., 2011), which argues that students who both expect to succeed in and value a domain are the most likely to pursue an education in that domain.

Critically, we found that the process through which the UVI influenced long-term persistence for confident students was distinct from the process by which it promoted course grades for disadvantaged students. Whereas the direct effect on persistence was mediated by personal focus (and not by engagement), the direct effect on course grades for underrepresented students (and for all students, on average) was mediated by engagement with course content (and not by personal focus). These findings suggest that the UVI may initiate two distinct processes: (a) helping underperforming students to engage with course material, thereby improving performance and helping them believe they can pursue the domain, and (b) increasing reflection on the personal relevance of course material for confident students, thereby helping them to see why pursuing that domain may be worthwhile.

These findings underscore a critical principle of intervention science: interventions target specific outcomes through specific motivational processes (Harackiewicz & Priniski, 2018). Although the original study focused on improving performance, the current study focused on persistence, and thus different motivational processes were critical. In the case of the UVI, we found that a single intervention influenced two independent processes (engagement with course material and reflection on personal relevance) and that these processes led to effects on distinct educational outcomes for different groups of students.

Authors

• Judith Harackiewicz, University of Wisconsin

• Cameron Hecht, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Stacy J. Priniski, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Elizabeth Ann Canning, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Yoi Tibbetts, University of Virginia

• Janet S. Hyde, University of Wisconsin - Madison