First-year academic success: A prediction combining cognitive and psychosocial variables for Caucasian and African American students

Journal of College Student Development, Nov/Dec 1998 by Ting, Siu-Man Raymond, Robinson, Tracy L

In a study of academic performance of 2,600 Caucasian and African American college freshmen in a Southeastern public research university, 4 cognitive (high school GPA, SAT verbal, mathematics, and total scores) and 38 psychosocial and demographic variables were employed in the Non-Cognitive Questionnaire and the First Year Student Survey to predict the students' GPAs and retention. The findings revealed cognitive and psychosocial variables for predicting student success.

A number of scholars have studied factors affecting academic performance and student retention. In addition to previous studies of cognitive factors (Houston, 1980; Nisbet, Ruble, & Schurr, 1982; Stanley, 1971), recent studies have focused on noncognitive or nontraditional factors such as:

1. Student involvement (Astin, 1993): Student learning and personal development are a function of the quantity and quality of student involvement that includes students' physical and psychological energy devoted to their college experience.

2. Institution intervention (Pascarella, Terenzini &Wolf,1986): An institutional sponsored newstudent orientation enhanced student persistence in the first year of college.

3. Academic and social integration (Tinto,1993): Whether a student will remain in a higher education institution is influenced by their personal and academic background as well as how well they integrate into the academic and social life in college.

4. A combination of the above models, student involvement and academic and social integration (Milem & Berger,1997).

Another approach combining psychological, social and cultural factors was found to have effective predictability of students' academic success for Asian Americans (Fuertes, Sedlacek, & Liu, 1994), African Americans (Boyer & Sedlacek,1988; Sedlacek & Adams-Gaston,1992), Hispanics (Fuertes & Sedlacek, 1995), medical students (Fogleman & Saeger, 1985), Caucasians and African Americans (Robinson,1990; Tracey & Sedlacek,1984,1985,1987), specially admitted Caucasian students (Ting,1997a), and low-income and first-generation students (Ting,1998).

Tracey and Sedlacek (1984, 1989) designed the Non-Cognitive Questionnaire (NCQ) using psychosocial variables to explain admission decisions and student attrition. In a factor-analytic study, they confirmed eight variables which could enhance student academic success (Tracey & Sedlacek, 1989). Sternberg (1985) offered a conceptual framework that supports the NCQ by suggesting that three types of intelligence exist. Componential intelligence is defined as the ability to interpret information in a structured and welldefined context. Among the types of intelligence, an individual needs only componential intelligence to interpret information in standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT. The traditional admission system in higher education tends to concentrate on standardized tests which represent this type of intelligence. Sedlacek (1996) suggested that, because the educational system is not optimally developed for students of color, many students may have developed other types of intelligence, namely contextual and experiential intelligence. Contextual intelligence refers to instrumental acts of advising, consulting, and perhaps influencing others through advice. Experiential intelligence is the ability to see issues from different points of view, interpret information in changing contexts, and to resolve practical problems. Sedlacek hypothesized that the NCQ measures the attributes of experiential and contextual intelligence.

In recent years, professionals have presented evidence that the NCQ variables can explain college success of different student populations. For example, specially admitted Caucasian students having leadership experience and demonstrated community services had higher GPAs and retention in the first year than other students (Ting,1997a). White and Sedlacek (1986) reported positive selfconcept and successful leadership experience as effective psychosocial predictors for 58 specially admitted students during their first year, accounting for 54% and 64% of the total variance for predicting GPA and registration status at the end of the first year respectively. Related research studies on different student populations such as, African Americans (Boyer & Sedlacek,1988; Sedlacek & Adams-Gaston, 1992), Caucasians and African Americans (Tracey & Sedlacek,1984,1985,1987), Hispanics (Fuertes & Sedlacek,1995), and Asian Americans (Fuertes, Sedlacek, & Liu,1994), which further confirmed the validity of the NCQ. Astin (1993) pointed out the importance of studying the interaction effect between gender and race affecting student success (p. xviii). However, few studies were found examining students' success across race and gender.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive and psychosocial variables in predicting first-year students' GPA and retention using the NCQ and other psychological, social, and cultural variables. The authors expected to find more effective prediction models based on gender and race rather than only a model for the overall sample. The research question was, disaggregated by gender and race, what is the effectiveness of the NCQ (Tracey & Sedlacek,1984) and other psychosocial variables in the First Year Student Survey (FYSS) (Ting,1997b) for predicting students' grades and retention?