Risk Factors, Instrumental Motivation, and Students' Fulfillment of Academic Expectations: A Moderation Analysis

Abstract

While many students have high school expectations to attain a postsecondary degree, certain factors lead to discrepancies in whether they do or do not attain those expectations. This moderation analysis examined the extent to which parents' expectations, when interacting with students' number of academic risk factors and instrumental motivation, predict fulfillment of expectations. Data from the 2002 Educational Longitudinal Study were analyzed using AM Software, controlling for race and gender. Although parents' expectations were a significant predictor of expectation fulfillment, they did not account for significant variance in the outcome variable. The interaction between instrumental motivation and parents' expectations was not a significant predictor of expectation fulfillment. However, the interaction between parents' expectations and academic risk factors was a significant predictor of expectation fulfillment. Implications for future research include examining how specific risk factors and parents' expectations are correlated.