Open AccessInvestigating the Relationship Between University Students’ Psychological Flexibility and College Self-Efficacy
Author(s) -
Jaimie R. Jeffords,
Benjamin L. Bayly,
Matthew F. Bumpus,
Laura Hill
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of college student retention
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.8
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1541-4167
pISSN - 1521-0251
DOI - 10.1177/1521025117751071
Subject(s) - self efficacy , flexibility (engineering) , psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , mathematics , statistics
For many, college is a period of transition, marked with acute stress, threats to success, and decreases in self-efficacy. For certain groups of students, the risk of these poor outcomes is elevated. In this study, 348 students from a large residential university in the western United States were surveyed to understand the role of psychological flexibility and inflexibility on self-efficacy and the potential moderating impact of year in college and underrepresented racial minority (URM) status. Results indicated that students who are psychologically flexible reported greater college self-efficacy, whereas students who are psychologically inflexible reported lower college self-efficacy. The impact of psychological inflexibility on self-efficacy was moderated by URM status and year in school; psychological inflexibility had a stronger impact on URM students' self-efficacy than non-minority students, and psychological inflexibility had a greater effect on college students starting college as opposed to students who had been enrolled for multiple years.