Regressed person-environment interest fit: Validating polynomial regression for a specific environment

Abstract

Polynomial regression is a proven method to calculate person-environment (PE) interest fit between the RIASEC (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional) interests of a student and the RIASEC profile of a study program. The method has shown much larger effects of PE interest fit on academic achievement than earlier approaches in literature. However, the polynomial regression method in its current form only focuses on establishing the regressed interest fit (RIF) of a population of students with their study environments, in order to observe how large the general impact of PE interest fit can become on academic achievement. The present study (N = 4407 across n = 22 study programs) further validates this method towards new applications by theoretically deriving two measures of RIF that only affect a single environment like a study program. Analyses show that the use of RIF for a single study environment results in an even stronger positive relation between PE interest fit and academic achievement of r = 0.36, compared to r = 0.25 for the original polynomial regression method. Analyses also show that RIF for one environment can be used to generate interpretable and reliable RIASEC environment profiles. In sum, RIF for a single (study) environment is a promising operationalization of PE interest fit which facilitates both empirical research as well as the practical application of interest fit in counseling settings.