Longitudinal Relations of Social Support and Barrier to Ability Beliefs and Achievement in College STEM

• In Event: College Students: Motivational Considerations and Factors

Abstract

There is an urgent need of increasing the workforce in STEM. To understand the contextual and motivational antecedents of achievement in STEM, the current study investigated (1) the predictive roles of social support and barrier for two ability beliefs (i.e., implicit theories of intelligence and self-efficacy) and achievement, (2) the mediating role of two ability beliefs linking the relations from social support and barrier to achievement, and (3) the longitudinal relations between two ability beliefs across three semesters in an undergraduate physics environment. Results from the cross-lagged path analyses revealed (a) the significant predictive roles of social support and barrier, (b) several significant mediated pathways, and (c) reciprocal relations between two ability beliefs.

Authors

• Hyewon Lee, University of California - Irvine

• Shirley L. Yu, The Ohio State University

• Minjung Kim, The Ohio State University