Incremental Validity of Constructs of the Social Cognitive Model of Academic Adjustment
Social cognitive theory includes a model for understanding adjustment with specific domains of the college experience. We examined the utility of the constructs of this model for predicting academic adjustment in the first semester of college. First-year students (N = 180, 78% women) completed measures of the five-factor model domains, self-efficacy for learning, career indecision, perceived stress, perception of institutional quality and fit, and institutional attachment. All measures of the model's constructs were significantly correlated with academic adjustment. Results of a hierarchical regression analysis indicated significant increments in [R.sup.2] with sequential addition of social-cognitive constructs to the regression model ([R.sup.2] = .64). Our results support the validity of the model for predicting academic adjustment in the first semester of college. ********** The ability to cope with academic demands may determine how well students cope with the first-year transition. How well they cope with academic demands may depend on a number of psychosocial variables. A social cognitive model has identified several psychosocial constructs for understanding adjustment in college, which include personality traits, perception of environmental support and availability of resources, goals and goal-directed activity, outcome expectations, and self-efficacy (Lent, 2004; Lent & Brown, 2006). We believe these constructs have utility for understanding the first-year transition. According to the social cognitive model, personality domains of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion are important to college adjustment, and these have been shown to be related to adjustment measures during the first semester of college (Wintre & Sugar, 2000). High levels of extraversion facilitate the transition to college life because of increased social integration and optimism. In contrast, high levels of neuroticism increase the risk for a stressful transition. High levels of conscientiousness increase chances of a successful transition as a result of improved coping, maintenance of schedules, and keeping up with academic demands. Self-efficacy beliefs about one's capability to successfully attain personal goals are predictive of academic performance when such beliefs are measured at the end of the first semester of college (Gore, 2006). The importance of goal progress may be viewed from career indecision theory. Given the cost of education, students may ill afford to postpone career plans. Although career aspirations, dreams, and fantasies may be important for entering a career (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), students may experience pressure to decide early. If a career decision has not been made, students may experience difficulty with the first-year transition. Some support for the social cognitive model was observed in a sample that consisted mostly of first- and second-year students (Lent et al., 2005). Our purpose is to examine the utility of this model for understanding the first-year transition by examining the incremental validity of the model's constructs for predicting academic adjustment in the first semester of college. We hypothesized that measures of the constructs would show evidence of incremental validity. Measures of the constructs included three personality domains of the five-factor model, neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness; institutional attachment and perception of institutional quality and fit; self-efficacy for learning and academic performance; two measures of career indecision; and perceived stress. Method Participants Participants were 180 (141 women and 39 men) undergraduate students in their first semester of college. Average age was 18.2 years (SD = 0.4). A majority had service-oriented majors (e.g., nursing, education, social work, and psychology). Measures The following measures were included as predictors: (a) The NEO-FFI (Form S, College Age) assesses five domains of the five-factor model, neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 2003) (60 items): 0 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). …