The chicken or the egg? Testing temporal relations between academic support, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goal progress among college students.

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the directionality of short-term temporal relations between academic support, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goal progress, which are hypothesized as mediators that channel the effects of personality and affective variables on academic well-being. Using the random intercepts cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) approach, four temporal models were tested on data of 825 first-year students gathered at three time points as they began their college journey. Based on the entire sample, the retained model revealed bidirectional relations between support and self-efficacy, support and outcome expectations, and self-efficacy and goal progress in the second time lag. A similar pattern emerged for male students, demonstrating a full reciprocal link between self-efficacy and goal progress and mediational pathways from these two variables to support and outcome expectations over time. For students of color, the results identified academic support as the temporal precursor of self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and self-efficacy as the antecedent of outcome expectations and goal progress. On the other hand, data of female students and those of European American students yielded less conclusive temporal patterns. These findings shed light on how temporal relations between academic support, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goal progress might vary as a function of one's gender and racial/ethnic backgrounds. They also offer practical implications for selecting and organizing intervention strategies designed to promote students' academic adjustment and well-being during their initial transition to college. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).