Page 184 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

et al., 2009). Moreover, academic adjustment explained variance in achievement beyond secondary school GPA (McKenzie & Schweitzer, 2001). Lowe and Cook (2003) found that 20% to 30% of university students experienced considerable di culty adjusting to higher education, leading a signi cant number to drop out or underperform. ese factors make academic adjustment an important concept when investigating student success.
7.2.2 Correlates of student success and academic adjustment
Because of the aforementioned importance of academic adjustment as a correlate of rst-year success, it is useful to know which variables in uence adjustment. Robbins et al. (2004) emphasised the importance of combining motivational factors and study skills when explaining academic achievement, and Kennedy et al. (2000) warned against using too narrow a range of variables. We followed this line of thought to explain adjustment and included di erent motivational and behavioural factors in our model to obtain a more integrative view of adjustment and achievement.
Motivational correlates of success and adjustment
Academic motivation. Meta-analyses on academic achievement showed a
consistent relationship between motivation and achievement (Richardson et
al., 2012; Robbins et al., 2004). Other studies investigated the link between
motivational factors and adjustment. For example, Lynch (2006), and Petersen et
al. (2009) reported a positive link between intrinsic motivation and adjustment. 7 Baker and Siryk (1984) showed that achievement motivation was correlated with
academic adjustment. Moreover, Baker (2004) showed that lack of motivation related to poorer adjustment to university. Following these ndings and the expectation that students who are intrinsically motivated to study a certain topic will nd it easier to adjust to an educational environment where they get the opportunity to study this topic, we expected academic motivation to have a direct e ect on achievement as well as an indirect one through adjustment.
Academic self-e cacy. According to Robbins et al.’s (2004) meta-analysis, academic self-e cacy is the strongest non-cognitive correlate of GPA. Self-e cacy is a person’s perception of the ability to perform adequately in a given situation (Bandura, 1997). Academic self-e cacy in the university context thus refers to a student’s con dence that he or she can perform adequately in the university environment. Besides being an important correlate of achievement, academic self-
Academic adjustment in university
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