1. Do Psychosocial and Study Skill Factors Predict College Outcomes? A Meta-Analysis Steven B. Robbins, Kristy Lauver, Huy Le and Daniel Davis, Ronelle Langley, & Aaron Carlstrom Presented by Andriette Vaughn Radford University

2. Purpose To determine if psychosocial and study skill factors predict college outcomes –Current national debate over what constructs to use when choosing college applicants Are standardized achievement and/or high school GPA better predictors of college outcomes?

3. Literature Review 1984 - 2004 Methods –Electronic Sources PsycINFO Educational Resources Information Center –Manual Search (1991-2000) Journal of Counseling Psychology Journal of Counseling and Development Research in Higher Education Journal of Higher Education Sources sited in the reference sections of literature reviews, articles, and studies from prominent sources

4. Literature Review Studies –408 were found –109 were used 299 were excluded due to data that was unusable and/or a population that did not coincide with our population of interest

5. Issues to Consider What constitutes college outcome? –Performance Class or subject matter achievement, typically measured by GPA –Persistence Retention: length of time a student remains enrolled in an institution. Lack of clearly defined and adequately measured predictors

6. Dependent Measures Achievement Motivation Academic Goals Institutional Commitment Perceived Social Support Social Involvement Academic Self-efficacy General Self-concept Academic-related Skills

7. Studies to Include Included both a measure of the PSF constructs and an outcome measure of college success Limited to studies examining full-time students enrolled at a 4-year, higher education institution in the United States

8. Results

10. Potential Moderators Types of measures used; Diversity of scales supposedly measuring the same construct College Adjustment Process Institutional size Institutional differences Literature ranges across many psychological and educational content domains Differences in sample characteristics (I.e. gender, race, background, individual differences, seniors vs. first years, etc)

11. Conclusion Measures of psychosocial and study skill factor constructs are correlated with retention as a measure of college success. Measures are also correlated with with GPA across most (90%) of situations Psychosocial and study skill factors are shown to be better predictors of college outcomes than SES, standardized achievement, and high school GPA, There is a need to incorporate Psychosocial and study skill factors into the prediction of college outcome