Differences in meaning in life in students: the effect of nontraditional status and region of country

College Student Journal, Dec, 2004 by John F. Geiger, Lawrence Weinstein, Christopher S. Jones

Two hundred fifty-eight traditional (age < 25) and nontraditional students (age > 25) in the Upper Midwestern United States and the Southwestern United States completed the Purpose in Life inventory (PIL). Students were grouped by major into 9 different classifications to see if major affected purpose in life, in a replication of Coffield and Buckalew (1986). Major did not affect PIL scores, but nontraditional status lead to higher scores. Students in the southwestern US had higher PIL scores than students in the upper Midwest area.

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Nontraditional students are attending college more than ever before. In 2000, 39 % of college students were 25 years old or older, which is up from 28 % in 1970, and this trend is projected to continue (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2003). This makes research into the nontraditional student experience more important than ever, as it is important to determine potential differences in academic performance between traditional and non-traditional students, as well as the challenges each face in attending college. Many non-traditional students have to deal with the prospect of balancing school, work, and family, but they also bring a wealth of real-life experience to the classroom, along with an eagerness to learn. As more and more nontraditional students pursue post-secondary degrees, colleges need to revise their programs and curriculum to better fit the needs of these students.

Past research has identified several key differences between traditional and nontraditional students: nontraditional students prefer a more diverse classroom setting (Dzindolet & Weinstein, 1994), nontraditional students have higher academic self-efficacy ratings (Tiner, 1995), and nontraditional students report better academic performance, despite fewer sources of social support (Carney-Crompton & Tan, 2002). In addition, nontraditional students tend to choose human service or social work majors based on life events, whereas traditional students tend to choose majors that family members have encouraged (Kinsella, 1998).

One possible explanation for the above findings could be "Meaning in Life", as Weinstein and Cox (1989) found that college faculty had higher Purpose in Life Test scores (Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1964), and suggested that age could partially explain this difference. However, other differences between faculty and students, such as level of education, could have caused the difference in PIL scores. Research needs to look at purpose in life among individuals where educational level is similar and age is the main variable.

As stated earlier, non-traditional students tend to choose human service majors based on life experience, whereas traditional students choose more varied majors based on family suggestions (Kinsella, 1998). For this reason, it is possible that purpose in life would affect a student's choice of major. Coffield and Buckalew (1986) examined Purpose in Life Test scores for different college majors, but could not draw any conclusions due to experimental problems. They believed that further work needed to focus on how purpose in life differed between major. If age is a determiner of purpose in life, then human service majors should have higher PIL scores than other majors.

The present study compared traditional and nontraditional students on the PIL test to see if purpose in life could explain the differences found between traditional and nontraditional students in terms of academic self efficacy, academic performance, and classroom preferences. The present study also replicated Coffield and Buckalew (1986) to see if college major led to differences in PIL scores, since traditional and nontraditional students tend to choose majors for different reasons. Two different samples of students were examined. One sample was from a large urban area in the Upper Midwestern United States, and the other sample was from a smaller community in the Southwestern United States. These samples allowed the authors to determine if PIL scores generalize to different regions of the country, where differences in SES, religiosity, or ethnicity might occur.

Method

Participants

258 participants were involved in the present study. Of these participants, 165 were traditional students (under 25 years old, M = 20.0 years), 87 were nontraditional students (over 25 years old, M = 31.3 years), and 6 were unclassified due to omitting their age on the questionnaire. 171 of the participants were from the Southwestern United States (Oklahoma) and 87 participants were from the Upper Midwest (Illinois). In terms of the traditional students, 120 were from the Southwest and 45 were from the Upper Midwest. For the non-traditional students, 46 were from the Southwest and 41 were from the Upper Midwest. Participants were also categorized into nine different major areas: Social Science, Physical Science, Biology, Business, Computer Science, Education, Arts and Multimedia Design, English/Journalism, and Undecided.

Materials and Procedure

Each participant first filled out a demographic sheet, and then completed the Purpose in Life Test (PIL) (Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1964). The PIL consists of 20 statements which are rated on a 1 to 7 Likert-type scale. Possible scores range from 20 to 140.