Invaluable Expectations: An Expectancy-Value Theory Analysis of Youths’ College Motivation

• In Event: 422 - Section on Communication and Information Technologies Paper Session. Inequalities and Communication, Media, and Information Technologies

Abstract

There is a continual need to understand the factors that influence minority students’ motivation and intentions to complete high school and attend college. Student interests formed in the early school years can have an impact on future course selections and persistence in school. These choices can have long-term repercussions on the future career options and the financial security of students. Therefore, we apply the long standing Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) in order to examine the factors that may influence students’ motivations and intentions to complete high school and attend college. Specifically, we wish to investigate if EVT can help to explain the change in students’ academic intentions and motivations after a one-to-one computer based intervention. We hypothesize that students’ expectancies/self-efficacy and subjective task values will be positively associated with students’ intention and motivation to persist in academia. Data for this study was gathered from a sample of elementary school students within urban schools located in the Southern United States. Results indicate that the change of students’ expectancies for success and subjective task value saliency over the intervention played an important role in students’ academic intention and motivation to both finish high school and attend college. These findings demonstrate that EVT is useful in explaining general academic motivations in young children.

Authors

• Christopher Ball, Michigan State University

• Tim Kuo-Ting Huang, Michigan State University

• Shelia R. Cotten, Michigan State University

• RV Rikard, North Carolina State University

• LaToya O'Neal Coleman, Michigan State University