Text

theses

Motivational processes are important for academic success in college because they enable students to learn independently and overcome challenges to learning. In particular, when students exhibit poor academic or self-regulation skills, are non-traditional in age, and/or enroll in online learning environments, they are more likely to encounter challenges that can interfere with learning. In the current study, person-centered statistical approaches were used to identify patterns of self-efficacy for online learning, mindset, mastery orientation, test anxiety, and grit in a sample of non-traditional college students (N = 5,952), and to examine whether these motivation profiles differentially related to indicators of academic success, engagement, and persistence. Additionally, this study aimed to validate the cluster solution by conducting multiple types of person-centered analyses (i.e., cluster analysis, latent profile analysis) across two random subsamples (i.e., 80% and 20% of the overall sample) of students. Results indicated that a four-profile solution was most meaningful and interpretable and was validated across two random samples. The four clusters also differed on measures of academic success and engagement with online resources, but not with term-to-term retention. Results are discussed in terms of the meaningfulness of motivation profiles in relation to achievement, how the profiles elicited from each statistical technique were compared, and the implications for future research and practical application of the motivation profiles.

ETD_9945

Psy.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-ksse-e992

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.