Abstract
Although theory-driven control striving treatments may sustain motivation for individuals navigating life course transitions, their efficacy during these challenging junctures remains unexamined. In a pre-post randomized field study (n = 316), a novel control striving treatment based on Heckhausen et al.’s (Psychol Rev 117:32–60, 2010) motivational theory of life-span development was administered to young adults making the landmark transition to university. For students who faced obstacles to goal attainment, the motivation-enhancing selective secondary control (SSC) striving treatment (vs. no-treatment) increased performance by 8 % in a two-semester course (74.85 % vs. 66.68 %). Consistent with theory, the SSC treatment-performance linkage was mediated by selective secondary and selective primary control in a hypothesized causal sequence. Findings advance the literature by showing control striving treatments can improve performance for some young adults in transition by promoting adaptive changes in theoretically-derived psychological process variables.
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Notes
The present literature review focuses on control striving from the perspective of the MTLD and therefore does not address motivation treatments that: involve motivation theories other than Heckhausen et al.’s (2010); are not control strategy based, for example, attributional retraining (e.g., Perry and Hamm, in press), value enhancement (e.g., Hulleman and Harackiewicz 2009; Harackiewicz et al. 2012), intention implementation (e.g., Duckworth et al. 2011), goal setting (e.g., Morisano et al. 2010), or social belonging (e.g., Walton and Cohen 2011); do not concern motivation or performance (e.g., psychotherapy); or, focus on very young or old populations (e.g., Chapin and Dyck 1976; Gitlin et al. 2006a, b). Reviews of the broader motivation treatment literature are provided elsewhere (see Elliot et al., in press; Karabenick and Urdan 2014).
Comprehensive meta-analyses by Robbins et al. (2004) and Richardson et al. (2012) showed HSGs (rs = .40–.41) and PAC (rs = .31–.59) were the strongest traditional and psychosocial correlates of university performance and therefore represent two of the most influential academic risk factors in university achievement settings. This implies students with a “double-jeopardy” low HSG-low PAC risk profile are prone to academic failure and may suffer extreme motivation deficits during the school-to-university transition. A one-time SSC treatment administered in a group setting is unlikely to remedy these substantial deficits. Low HSG-low PAC students may require more intensive intervention programs involving multicomponent treatments tailored to their specific needs and administered on multiple occasions.
Although PAC should relate to student grades, it may not correlate with HSGs considering that the PAC items were context-specific and referred to students’ university experiences (see Perry et al. 2001). This implies that PAC should positively relate to university performance but may not relate to past HSGs given (a) shifts in perceptions of control during the major school-to-university transition and (b) the significant differences between high school and university achievement settings (see Perry 2003; Perry et al. 2001, 2005a).
SSC treatment effects were consistent when accounting for autoregressive effects of T1 secondary control and initial test performance. For only low HSG-high PAC students, the SSC treatment (vs. no-treatment) increased (a) Time 3 secondary control when controlling for Time 1 secondary control (partially standardized β = .52, p = .021) and (b) final course grades when controlling for initial test performance [partially standardized β = .36, p = .036].
To test Heckhausen et al.’s (2010) proposition that SSC should promote perceived control, we conducted a supplemental Treatment x HSG x PAC regression analysis with Time 3 PAC as the outcome measure when controlling for age and gender. The three-way interaction was significant (β = −.12, p = .009, CIs = −0.207 to −0.030), and simple–simple slope analyses indicated that the SSC treatment (vs. no-treatment) increased Time 3 PAC for individuals with low HSGs and high Time 1 PAC (partially standardized β = .49, p = .014, CIs = 0.097 to 0.873). The SSC treatment also increased Time 3 PAC for those with high HSGs and low Time 1 PAC (partially standardized β = .64, p = .002, CIs = 0.234 to 1.040). No treatment effects were observed for students with the remaining two combinations of HSG and PAC. Results were consistent when employing a traditional subgroups approach: The SSC treatment (vs. no-treatment) only increased Time 3 PAC for students with low HSGs and high initial PAC [t(238) = 2.31, p = .022, Ms = 4.66 vs. 4.38, M diff = 0.28, d = 0.61] and for students with high HSGs and low initial PAC [t(238) = 1.98, p = .048, Ms = 4.13 vs. 3.87, M diff = 0.25, d = 0.54].
Although treatment conditions and experimental sessions were homogenous on the pre-treatment (baseline) variables, supplemental multi-level analyses were conducted to account for potential group effects by nesting students within (a) course tutorial sections and (b) experimental sessions based on recommendations by Tabachnick and Fidell (2013). SSC treatment effects on each of the outcome measures (secondary control, PAC, final grades) were consistent in both sets of multi-level analyses.
Predicted values were consistent with the supposition that low HSG-low PAC students may be most susceptible to the detrimental effects of difficult transitions and possibly cannot be assisted by motivation treatments: Irrespective of treatment condition, these young adults reported the lowest selective secondary control (ZPRED = −.33, −.42), the lowest PAC (ZPRED = −.74, −.67), and achieved the lowest final grades (ZPRED = −.69, −.58).
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Acknowledgment
This study was based on doctoral dissertation research conducted by the first author. The work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships to the first author, a SSHRC Insight Grant [435-2012-1143] and a Royal Society of Canada and Alexander von Humboldt Research Grant to the second author, and SSHRC Insight Grants [410-2010-2049; 435-2016-0970] to the third author.
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Hamm, J.M., Perry, R.P., Chipperfield, J.G. et al. A motivation-enhancing treatment to sustain goal engagement during life course transitions. Motiv Emot 40, 814–829 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-016-9576-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-016-9576-4