Academic procrastination: The pattern and correlates of behavioural postponement

Using a series of computer-based assignments, we examined whether students’ submission patterns revealed a hyperbolic pattern of temporal discounting, such that few assignments are submitted far ahead of the deadline and submission of assignments accelerates at an increasing rate as the deadline becomes imminent. We further examined whether variables related to self-regulation – namely, self-reported procrastination, implementation intentions, say-do correspondence, and perceived academic control – correlated with behavioural postponement. Results revealed strong behavioural evidence of temporal discounting, especially among those who identified themselves as procrastinators. Among the self-regulation measures, only say-do correspondence consistently correlated with procrastination.     

An Experimental Analysis of the Effects of Reading Interventions in a Small Group Reading Instruction Context

The current study examined the effects of several combinations of instructional and motivational interventions on oral reading fluency in the context of small group reading instruction. A treatment package consisting of acquisition, fluency, and motivational components was examined and then dismantled. Results were evaluated individually for each participant using a multiple-probe design in order to identify the most effective, yet efficient reading intervention package for each member of the group. The results indicated that, although all potential combinations of the package were effective, the experimental analysis was able to identify an effective yet more efficient package that produced substantial increases in performance across all students. Results are discussed in terms of effective instructional components in small group instruction and how to adapt methods for the experimental analysis of behavior to make decisions about the effectiveness of small group instruction in reading.This study is based on a dissertation submitted by the first author in partial fulfillment of requirements for the doctoral degree.     

The different effects of family on objective career success across gender: A test of alternative explanations

Gender gaps in achieved rank and salary, common indicators of objective success, often are attributed to the different family roles and responsibilities of men and women. This study tested three explanations for the different effects of family on careers: that is, choice, performance, and signaling explanations. In a sample of American doctoral graduates, the impact of family on career outcomes was felt at entry, early, and middle career stages and support was provided for arguments of all explanations. At the time of graduation, two family variables, the presence of a young child, and not having a non-employed spouse, were associated with women favoring work-family balance in jobs that in turn predicted geographic restrictions on employment. For men, family structure was not associated with job preferences. At later career stages, women did not experience the performance benefits from having a non-employed spouse that men did. In addition, women were at a career disadvantage because they were far less likely to have non-employed spouses who were associated with achieving high ranks by middle career for both genders.     

Career adaptability and academic satisfaction: Examining work volition and self efficacy as mediators

The present study examined the relation between the four components of career adaptability – concern, control, curiosity, and confidence (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) – and academic satisfaction. Drawing from a diverse sample of 412 undergraduate students, all four components moderately correlated with academic satisfaction. In an effort to explain these relations, work volition and career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) were examined as potential mediator variables. Using structural equation modeling, work volition significantly mediated the control to satisfaction relation and CDSE significantly mediated the concern, control, and confidence to satisfaction relations. After including all variables in the model, none of the career adaptability components significantly related with academic satisfaction. These results suggest that for undergraduate students, feeling adaptable in one's career may link to greater levels of academic satisfaction due, in part, to greater feelings of control and confidence in one's career decision making.     

Coparenting Conflict and Academic Readiness in Children of Teen Mothers: Effortful Control as a Mediator

Children's exposure to coparenting conflict has important implications for their developmental functioning, yet limited work has focused on such processes in families with diverse structures or ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds. This longitudinal study examined the processes by which Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers' coparenting conflict with their 3‐year‐old children's grandmothers and biological fathers (N = 133 families) were linked to children's academic and social skills at 5 years of age, and whether children's effortful control at 4 years of age mediated the link between coparenting conflict and indices of children's academic readiness. Findings revealed that adolescent mothers' coparenting conflict with their child's biological father was linked to indices of children's academic and social school readiness through children's effortful control among girls, but not boys, whereas conflict with grandmothers was directly linked to boys' and girls' social functioning 2 years later. Findings offer information about different mechanisms by which multiple coparenting units in families of adolescent mothers are related to their children's outcomes, and this work has important implications for practitioners working with families of adolescent mothers.     

The mediating role of cultural coping behaviours on the relationships between academic stress and positive psychosocial well‐being outcomes

While culture's effect on the coping process has long been acknowledged in the stress‐coping literature conceptually, empirical evidence and attempts to discern the specific relationship between culture and coping remain very scarce. Against this backdrop, the present study applied the Cultural Transactional Theory (Chun, Moos, & Cronkite, 2006) to examine the mediating role of cultural coping behaviours (Collective, Engagement and Avoidance Coping) on the relationship between academic stress (AS) and two positive psychosocial well‐being outcome measures: Collective Self‐esteem (CSE) and Subjective Well‐being (SWB). Responses from a sample of undergraduate students in Canada (N = 328) were analysed to test a theory‐driven, hypothesised model of coping using structural equation modelling (SEM). As hypothesised, the SEM results showed that: (a) the proposed cultural coping model fit the data well; (b) Engagement Coping and Collective Coping partially mediated the association between AS and the outcomes and (c) the path relationships among the constructs were in the hypothesised directions. A set of preliminary exploratory analyses indicated that Collective Coping was most strongly endorsed by the African/Black and the Middle Eastern cultural groups as compared to other ethnic groups. Implications of the study's findings for future research and practice concerning culture, stress, and coping are discussed.     

The impact of parenting styles on children developmental outcome: The role of academic self‐concept as a mediator

Although the importance of parenting styles directly influencing child development is well established, fewer studied have examined whether parenting styles also affect children's behavioural problems indirectly, mediated through children's academic self‐concept (ASC). We examined direct and shared effects of parenting styles on behavioural problems of 199 Kurdish primary school children with a mean age of 11 years 7 months (range 11 years 5 months to 12 years 3 months). Questionnaires measured parenting styles (child version of Alabama Parenting Questionnaire), assessed children's ASC (Myself‐As‐Learner Scale) and identified children's behavioural problems with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). PROCESS analysis was used to perform the mediation analysis. The results revealed that positive and negative parenting composites are indirectly related to children's internalising behaviour problems. In addition, ASC partially mediated the relationship between the negative parenting composite and prosocial behaviour. However, the mediation analysis did not show the expected indirect effect of parenting styles on externalising problems as being mediated via ASC. Hence, we argue that the ASC serves as a significant mediator in the relationship between parenting styles with prosocial behaviour and internalising problems.     

Théorie de l’autodétermination et modèle multimodal d’engagement : un pairage prometteur pour mieux comprendre les liens entre motivation et engagement scolaires chez des étudiants universitaires

Introduction

Psychological mechanisms associated with academic motivation and academic commitment constitute promising targets for the understanding of the undergraduate students’ well being, during a particularly critical adulthood developmental period in terms of identity formation and vulnerability to psychopathologies.

Differential influence of basic psychological needs on burnout and academic achievement in three southeast European countries

Several studies show the importance of basic psychological needs (BPN) for decreasing burnout and increasing grade point average (GPA), but, to our knowledge, no prior study has explored the potential contextual differences in Southeastern European countries. Moreover, even less is known about how this relationship may differ during stressful (exam) and less stressful (beginning of the semester) periods. Measures of the Maslach Burnout Inventory—Student Survey and BPN Satisfaction and Frustration Scale were translated and adapted. The study included a cross-sectional sample of students from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia during beginning of the semester and exam period. Across all countries and both contexts, students with high autonomy need satisfaction showed the strongest decrease in burnout, followed by those with high competence need satisfaction. Students with high academic achievement showed an increase due to competence need satisfaction. Competence and autonomy need satisfaction were higher beginning of a semester, while burnout was higher during the exam period. BPN play an important role in educational settings—satisfaction of the need for autonomy and competence protects students from burnout, and the need for competence predicts greater academic achievement regardless of culture or time of the semester.     

Individual differences in growth in executive function across the transition to school predict externalizing and internalizing behaviors and self-perceived academic success at 6 years of age

Building on an existing latent variable analysis of executive function (EF) in children (N = 191, 57% boys and 43% girls) making the transition to school (Hughes et al. (2010), Developmental Neuropsychology, vol. 35, pp. 20-36), the current study both documented average developmental improvements from 4 to 6 years of age and examined individual differences in EF growth in relation to latent factors for two sets of child outcome measures at 6 years: (a) first-grade teachers’ ratings of emotional symptoms, hyperactivity, and conduct/peer problems and (b) children’s self-perceived academic and social competencies. With effects of concurrent verbal ability and EF controlled, variation in EF slopes across the transition to school predicted variation in latent constructs for (a) all four problem behavior subscales and (b) children’s self-reported academic (but not social) competence. These findings underscore the clinical and educational significance of early individual differences in EF and highlight the value of adopting a developmental perspective.