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Coping strategies and first year performance in postsecondary education
Author(s) -
Alarcon Gene M.,
Edwards Jean M.,
Clark Patrick C.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12120
Subject(s) - conscientiousness , disengagement theory , psychology , denial , coping (psychology) , big five personality traits , structural equation modeling , personality , cognition , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , extraversion and introversion , statistics , gerontology , medicine , mathematics , neuroscience , psychoanalysis
Coping was hypothesized to explain additional variance in first year grade point averages ( GPA s) controlling for cognitive ability and conscientiousness. First year GPA s were assessed as criterion for performance in the first year. Results indicate active coping, denial, behavioral disengagement, and alcohol disengagement are related to first year GPA . Denial and alcohol disengagement coping strategies were significant predictors and negatively related to first year GPA in the final regression equation controlling for cognitive ability and conscientiousness. Latent growth modeling analysis demonstrated cognitive ability predicted both the intercept and slope of first year GPA . Conscientiousness was a predictor of initial GPA but not change. Lastly, coping was a significant predictor of change in GPA . Implications for research and theory are discussed.