The What, Why, and How of Distractions from a Self-Regulated Learning Perspective

ABSTRACT

College students do not study in isolated environments; rather, they encounter obstacles as they complete academic tasks. Using a qualitative approach, the present study explored the distractions and underlying causes students face as well as the strategies they use to control these distractions. Our findings suggested that students’ distractions, underlying causes, and strategies can be categorized into five themes. Four of these themes – cognition, motivation/affect, behavior, and context – have been well represented in prior self-regulated learning literature. The fifth theme, physiology, has not been well represented. We also identified the most common distractions (i.e., contextual), causes (i.e., motivational/affective), and strategies (i.e., contextual). Overall, our findings highlight the highly contextual nature of the obstacles college students encounter as they work toward their academic goals.

KEYWORDS:

• College students
• distractions
• qualitative
• self-regulated learning
• strategies

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna C. Brady

Anna C. Brady is a doctoral candidate in Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on college students’ motivation and self-regulated learning. She is particularly interested in ways researchers and higher education practitioners can implement self-regulated learning interventions to improve students’ academic success.

Yeo-eun Kim

Yeo-eun Kim is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a PhD in Educational Psychology from The Ohio State University. Dr. Kim’s research focuses on understanding and improving students’ motivation and self-regulated learning in diverse personal and social settings.

Jessica Cutshall

Jessica Cutshall is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and earned her PhD from The Ohio State University. She has extensive teaching and clinical experience helping others overcome life struggles and achieve success. Dr. Cutshall’s research focuses on motivation and mental health. She currently works as a therapist in private practice.