Attachment and college academic success a four-year longitudinal study
1. Attachment and College Academic Success:
A Four-Year Longitudinal Study
Robert M. Kurland, Associate Dean of Student Affairs
Dr. Harold I. Siegel, Chair and Professor of Psychology
Rutgers University – Newark, NJ
October 27, 2011
2. Defining Adult Attachment
+ (Model of self) -
+
(Model of others)
-
(Fraley, Waller, & Brennan. 2000)
3. Background
Love and Work: An Attachment Theoretical Perspective
(Hazan & Shaver, 1990)
Secure:
do not worry about failure or feel unappreciated
work does not interfere with friendships
take enjoyable vacations
Anxious:
worry about work performance
feel underappreciated
fear rejection for poor performances
are easily distracted
have trouble completing projects
tend to slack off after receiving praise.
Avoidant:
prefer to work alone
use work to avoid socializing
do not have enjoyable vacations from work.
5. How to measure academic
success?
GPA
Credit load and completion
Retention
Graduation
6. Attachment and College Student Academic
Success
How to improve college
students’ academic
success
Can Attachment Theory
serve as a framework for
college student academic
success?
7. Previous Research
Secure children at 18 months were more enthusiastic, persistent, cooperative,
and, in general, more effective than insecurely attached infants (Matas, Arend, &
Sroufe, 1978)
Secure children aged 1½ through 5½ paid more attention to readings than
anxiously attached children (Bus & Van Ijzendoorn, 1988)
Secure children at 7 years old children were better with deductive reasoning as
compared to insecure children (Jacobsen & Hofmann,1994)
Avoidant and ambivalent toddlers explored less and were less involved in school
and academic related tasks and activities (Matas et. al., 1978)
Ambivalent children were more concerned with focusing on the teacher’s physical
proximity and attachment availability than they were on academic tasks and
activities (Cassidy & Berlin, 1994)
8. Attachment and Academic
Success
Academically successful students Research has shown that secure
need (Mikulincer &Shaver, 2007): individuals:
Constructive ways of coping with handle stress better (Salas, Driskell, &
frustrations and failures Hughes, 1996)
optimistic expectations of academic have high levels of self-confidence
success (Mattanh, Hancock, & Brand, 2004)
positive attitude toward learning and Have better academic competency
problem solving (Fass & Tubman, 2002)
9. Study 1 – Attachment and Academic
Success during the transition to College
84 Rutgers-Newark college freshmen (class of 2011)
Consent to access academic records
Survey questions used to measure:
Attachment (Fraley, Niedenthal, Marks, Brumbaugh, & Vicary, 2006;
Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991)
Ethical behavior (7-point Likert scale)
Anxiety (Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988)
Depression (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1962)
Self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965)
Academic Locus of Control (Trice, 1985)
Student life, student activities (7-point Likert scale)
10. Attachment and Academic Success in High School
↑ Avoidance ↓ High School GPA r = -.269, p = .021
↑ Anxiety…
↓ SAT r = -.262, p = .024
11. Attachment and Academic Success during transition
Student who were high in attachment anxiety performed worse
academically in college as compared to high school (r = -.312, p = .007)
3
(HS GPA - College GPA)
2
1
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Attachment anxiety
12. Attachment and Academic Success - first semester
Attachment avoidance and credits attempted
17
16.5 *
16
15.5
Avoidant
15 Non-avoidant
14.5
14
13.5
Avoidant Non-avoidant
t (1,72) = 2.626, p = .011
13. Study 2: Longitudinal study on
attachment and academic success
84 Rutgers-Newark college freshmen (class of 2011)
During their first year (AY 07-08) completed survey
including:
ECR – anxiety and avoidant scores
Relationship Questionnaire
Consent to access academic records
25 minutes to complete
20. Discussion
Results show secure students have higher GPA’s, are
retained better, and graduate earlier
secure students showed better learning dispositions
(Larose, Bernier, & Tarabulsy, 2005)
Individuals with secure attachment to both parents and
peers had significantly higher GPA’s (Fass & Tubman,
2002)
21.
22. Future/Current Research
Examine the influence of two specific variables that may
mediate or moderate the relationship between
attachment and academic success in the classroom
Self-efficacy (Cutrona, Cole, Colangelo, Assouline, &
Russell, 1994)
Procrastination (Hazen & Shaver, 1990)
23. Thanks
Dr. Harold I. Siegel
Attachment Lab:
Dan DePaulo
Raelene Joran
Allyson Meloni
Katie Alexander
Dr. Connie Wibrowski
Writing Program
EOF
Student Life and Leadership
Shelley C. Kurland, et al.