Assessing college students’ ego-identity status and their use of motivational regulation strategies

ABSTRACT

Using correlational analyses and structural equation modeling, this study tests three hypotheses: students’ reported use of motivational strategies is 1) correlated with their ego-identity status; 2) positively correlated with their reported use of learning strategies and negatively associated with their level of procrastination; and 3) related to their existing motivational beliefs and attitudes. Participants were American college students (N = 113). The findings support all three hypotheses.

The study computed Pearson product moment correlations (listwise) among the ego identity and motivation measures; significant correlations ranged from 0.19 to 0.29. To test the hypothesized conceptual model, the study subjected the correlations to a confirmatory factor analysis. The five model varimax solution had excellent loadings on 16 variables; their standardized path coefficients were highly significant (p < 0.001). The fit was good across several indices of fit (chi-square of 214.28, df = 161, p = 0.0003; goodness of fit (GFI) = 0.913; RMSEA = 0.056).

The findings support the existence of a positive relationship between college students’ identity status and their use of motivational regulation strategies. They also suggest students’ use of motivational strategies is closely related to their use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, but not to their level of academic procrastination. This article discusses practical applications for mental health providers and educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognition
• college students
• development
• ego-identity status
• identity
• learning
• motivation
• self-regulation

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a faculty development grant from Adelphi University awarded to Akhtar Ebrahimi Ghassemi.