Poster #39 - 1. Understanding the Perceived Costs of Academic Engagement During the First Year of College

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

A growing body of research suggests that perceived cost, the largely neglected component of Situated Expectancy Value Theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020), predicts a number of adverse academic outcomes across educational stages (Benden & Lauermann, 2022; Robinson et al., 2019). However, existing studies on cost use short-term measures of those outcomes, and focus almost exclusively on STEM domains; thus, it is unclear whether cost plays a prominent role in students’ long-term academic motivation as they consider their experiences of school more generally. Moreover, most cost studies have relied solely on survey measures of cost perceptions, which fail to capture the nuances of students’ academic experiences.

The present study therefore applied a mixed-methods approach to 1) document the relationship between first-year college students’ cost perceptions and their longer-term academic outcomes in a liberal arts context, and 2) characterize the motivational experiences of students with varying levels of perceived cost. We expected that the negative relationship between cost and academic outcomes (i.e., GPA, retention) would extend to longer-term measures (i.e., cumulative GPA, college graduation). We explored qualitative data to identify differences in the way students described their motivational experiences depending on their cost status (Low or High). Our mixed-methods approach allowed for triangulation across researchers, methods, and participants.

Method
298 first-year students at a small liberal arts college completed survey measures of cost perception, with a subset (n = 185) providing open-ended accounts of their experiences as particularly unmotivated/motivated during their first year. Based on students’ quantitative reports of cost, we divided the sample into “High” and “Low Cost” students; this categorization guided our thematic analysis of the open-ended responses.

Results
Quantitative Data. Consistent with prior research, cost negatively predicted short-term GPA and retention status. Notably, as hypothesized, cost also negatively predicted students’ cumulative GPA and their graduation status five years after matriculating at the institution. See Table 1 for regression coefficients.
Qualitative Data. Using thematic analysis, we coded students’ open-ended responses while blind to their cost status. We then unblinded ourselves to students’ cost status to characterize High and Low Cost students. See Table 2. High Cost students tended to dislike academic challenge, focus on self-regulation, and prioritize non-academic activities. Low Cost students, conversely, tended to seek out challenge and focus on mastering the course content. Both groups cited the importance of professors, who helped students attain new levels of understanding and made courses feel worthwhile.

Conclusions
Cost perceptions during the first semester of college negatively predicted students’ long-term academic outcomes. Qualitative data provided triangulation (e.g., High Cost students were more likely to describe poor academic performance than their Low Cost peers) and introduced novel ideas about the contextual factors contributing to the motivation of High and Low Cost students (e.g., High Cost students are motivated by their productivity, while Low Cost students are motivated by their mastery). Taken together, our findings suggest that cost is a prominent aspect of the collegiate experience, and that initial cost perceptions can serve a catalyst for—or a barrier to—future academic success.

Authors

• Sarah H. Wu, Reed College
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer Henderlong Corpus