Search Results (22)

This study investigates the quantitative relationship between the four dimensions of emotional intelligence and the two types of contemporary filial piety, academic achievement in a Chinese university setting. Based on a sample of 240 Chinese undergraduates, the regression analysis was employed to examine how academic achievement and the two types of contemporary filial piety, namely Pragmatic Obligation (PO) and Compassionate Reverence (CR), relate to four dimensions of emotional intelligence—Self-Emotional Monitoring (SEM), Emotional Utilization (EU), Social Competence (SC), and Others’ Emotional Appraisal (OEA). Results revealed that CR, PO, and Grade Point Average (GPA) predicted emotional intelligence positively and significantly. Notably, PO was the strongest predictor of emotional intelligence compared to CR and GPA. These findings advance theoretical understanding in two aspects. Firstly, they challenge the traditional dichotomy of filial piety by demonstrating that both CR and PO serve as cultural resources enhancing emotional competencies. Afterwards, the study bridges collectivistic values by filial piety with emotional intelligence, offering a culturally nuanced framework for interpreting academic success in Confucian societies. Full article

Background/Objectives: Undergraduate nursing students report encountering significant challenges when they perform preplanning for clinical days. The literature lacks evidence regarding this educational model for clinical training, yet faculty continue to use it despite the lack of evidence that supports it. This study explored undergraduate nursing students’ perceptions of their preclinical training activities. Methods: A quasi-experimental, after-only, nonequivalent control group design was employed at a public nursing school in an urban setting. A total of 110 undergraduate nursing students enrolled in an advanced medical–surgical course. Participants were divided into two groups based on their preparation approach for clinical practice. Data were collected using a paper-and-pencil survey at the end of the course’s clinical rotation. The survey comprised three sections: (1) sociodemographic information, (2) the nursing clinical education tool (NCET) developed for this study, and (3) two open-ended questions focusing on the pros and cons of preplanning and reflective care approaches. The responses were analyzed and compared using a nonparametric two-independent-samples Mann–Whitney U test. Results: The findings indicated that students in eight out of ten nursing clinical education survey categories favored the reflective care approach. No differences were found between groups concerning class grade point average (GPA), the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) passing rate, or standardized tests. Conclusions: The reflective care approach was perceived more favorably than preplanning. Engaging in clinical reasoning strategies requires educators to reconsider how students interact with clinical education. Further research is needed to develop evidence-based methods to enhance the clinical learning experience and promote patient safety. Full article

Background/Objectives: Historically racialized status (HRS) and low socioeconomic position (SEP) are independent risk factors for food insecurity and poor academic achievement among college students. Despite increased enrollment of students from historically racialized groups and low SEP, little is known regarding the intersectional experience of these contemporary student characteristics with food security status or academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine the intersections of racialized status and SEP with food insecurity and academic achievement among undergraduate students attending a public university system in California. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1170 undergraduates who utilized their campus food pantry between June and August 2019 at nine University of California campuses. Racialized status and SEP were used to construct four distinct intersectional positions: (1) White, not low SEP (i.e., traditional students; reference), and three contemporary student groups: (2) White, low SEP; (3) HRS, not low SEP; and (4) HRS, low SEP. Using regression analyses, these intersectional positions were examined with food insecurity and grade point average (GPA), while controlling for other student characteristics. Results: HRS, low SEP students had significantly higher odds of experiencing food insecurity (OR = 2.72; 95% CI: 1.52–4.97) and lower GPA (B = −0.14, p = 0.05) than traditional students, after adjustment. Conclusions: Contemporary students are at increased risk of food insecurity and lower academic achievement compared to traditional students. Full article

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence in recent years, intelligent evaluation of college students’ growth by means of the monitoring data from training processes is becoming a promising technique in the field intelligent education. Current studies, however, tend to utilize course grades, which are objective, to predict students’ grade-point averages (GPAs), but usually neglect subjective factors like psychological resilience. To solve this problem, this paper takes mechanical engineering as the research object, and proposes a new machine-learning-driven GPA prediction approach to evaluate the academic performance of engineering students by incorporating psychological evaluation data into basic course scores. Specifically, this paper adopts SCL-90 psychological assessment data collected in the freshman year, including key mental health indicators such as somatization, depression, hostility, and interpersonal sensitivity indicators, as well as professional basic course scores, including mechanical principles, mechanical design, advanced mathematics, and engineering drawing. Four representative machine learning algorithms, Support Vector Machine (SVM), CNN-CBAM, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) that include deep and shallow models, respectively, are then employed to build a classification model for GPA prediction. This paper designs a validation experiment by tracking 229 students from the 2020 class from the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Henan University of Science and Technology, China. The students’ academic performance in senior grades is divided into five classes to use as the prediction labels. It is verified that psychological data and course data can be effectively integrated into GPA prediction for college students, with an accuracy rate of 83.64%. Meanwhile, this paper also reveals that anxiety indicators in the psychological assessment data have the greatest impact on college students’ academic performance, followed by interpersonal sensitivity. The experimental results also show that, for predicting junior year GPAs, psychological factors play more important role than they do in predicting sophomore GPAs. Suggestions are therefore given: the current practice in existing undergraduate teaching, i.e., only conducting psychological assessments in the initial freshman year, should be updated by introducing follow-up psychological assessments in each academic year. Full article

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students with markers of potential challenges on the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) and evaluate their outcomes. The qualitative arm, framed by social cognitive theory, identified strategies students used to achieve first-attempt success. Of the 143 students from one DPT program who had markers of potential NPTE challenges, 79% overcame challenges to achieve success, revealing a weaker association between undergraduate grade point average (GPA) and NPTE performance. Year one program GPA and written exam performance while in the program were stronger predictors of NPTE performance. Qualitative analysis of interviews with 19 graduates revealed three themes: (1) Critical resources build confidence for a unique standardized test; (2) Peers support, teach, and hold each other accountable; and (3) Self-care is vital as emotions run high. Participants described needing to change their approaches to learning between undergraduate and DPT education. Critical resources for achieving first-attempt success included contextualizing knowledge in the clinical setting, NPTE preparatory courses, and frequent self-assessment, which facilitated retrieval practice and revealed knowledge deficits. Little is known about graduates who did not achieve first-attempt success but were ultimately successful, warranting further research. Full article

Selecting the appropriate undergraduate program is a critical decision for students. Many elements influence this choice for secondary students, including financial, social, demographic, and cultural factors. If a student makes a poor choice, it will have implications for their academic life as well as their professional life. These implications may include having to change their major, which will cause a delay in their graduation, having a low grade-point average (GPA) in their chosen major, which will cause difficulties in finding a job, or even dropping out of university. In this paper, various supervised machine learning techniques, including Decision Tree, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine, were investigated to predict undergraduate majors. The input features were related to the student’s academic history and the job market. We were able to recommend the program that guarantees both a high academic degree and employment, depending on previous data and experience, for Master of Business Administration (MBA) students. This research was conducted based on a published research and using the same dataset and aimed to improve the results by applying hyper-tuning, which was absent in previous research. The obtained results showed that our work outperformed the work of the published research, where the random forest exceeded the other classification techniques and reached an accuracy of 97.70% compared to 75.00% on the published research. The importance of features was also investigated, and it was found that the degree percentage, MBA percentage, and entry test result were the top contributing features to the model. Full article

This paper explores how the entry profiles of engineering students are related to their academic performance during the first year of university in a sample of 255 first-year engineering students (77 females and 178 males) at a university in Northeast Mexico. The predictors used were the high school grade point average (HSGPA), Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) results, the first admission test, and a Spanish adaptation of the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes Test (SSHA) from Brown and Holtzman. The SSHA adaptation was tested for internal consistency reliabilities via Cronbach’s alpha globally (0.92) and for the following categories: delay avoidance (DA: 0.79), work methods (WM: 0.81), teacher approval (TA: 0.89), and educational acceptance (EA: 0.74). The results were compared with those of other studies to validate their consistency. To assess the different entry profiles between high- and low-achieving students, we performed a Kruskal–Wallis test and found significant differences (p < 0.001) between both profiles for all variables. We then measured the relationships between the variables and academic success by constructing a correlation table, where HSGPA, SAT, and DA showed the highest correlations: 0.61, 0.40, and 0.36, respectively. With these outcomes, a predictive model via a logistic regression ($R^2=0.52$) was built to forecast first year academic performance in the specific context. Full article

Higher education policies are designed to facilitate students’ learning progression and academic success. Following Tinto’s integration theory and Bean’s attrition model, this study proposes a research model to investigate whether students prone to attrition can be pre-emptively identified through self-evaluating academic factors contributing to their learning progress. Theoretically, the learning progress is identified with student success, represented by factors amenable to intervention including the interaction with peers and instructors, teaching effectiveness, exam scores, absenteeism, students’ effort, and academic course-related variables. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of 530 undergraduate students revealed that the indicators of learning progress in such students were channeled into two constructs. The results indicated that the teacher effectiveness and learning materials contributed most to the learning progress. Structural equation modelling revealed that the learning progress variables have a significant impact on students’ attrition status. A multi-group analysis confirmed the academic semesters to be a moderator in the mediating effects of the students’ grade point average (GPA). This model functions as a framework to design a student-oriented learning system promoting students’ learning experience and academic success. Full article

The purpose of this study was to understand the demographic, student, financial, and academic differences between marginally food secure college students and students with high, low, or very low food security (FS). Unlike highly food secure students, marginally food secure students worry about the quantity and quality of their food, yet they are classified in the same category as highly food secure individuals as per the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reporting standards. To investigate marginal FS among college students, a cross-sectional online survey was administered at a large, public, research university in the Northeastern United States. A largely representative sample of 6823 undergraduate students completed the survey with a 19.7% response rate. Self-reported level of FS was measured using the validated USDA 10-item FS survey module. Independent variables, such as demographic and student characteristics and cumulative grade point average (GPA), were gathered from institutional databases, and self-reported mechanisms of financing education were measured using a novel scale. Results from the multinomial logistic regression revealed statistically significant differences in GPA between students with marginal and high FS (p < 0.001), but not between students with marginal and low FS (p = 0.31). This work has implications beyond college students and suggests that marginally food secure populations should not be labeled as food secure. Full article

The study aimed to evaluate test anxiety and its relationship with demographic factors among undergraduate medical, dental, and pharmacy students in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The health professions students from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia participated in this cross-sectional study. Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) by Spielberger was used to evaluate test anxiety and the score on the scale ranges from 20 to 80. Of the total 1098 participants, 878 returned completed questionnaires and the response rate of the study was 79.9%. In response to the items of TAI, 33% of participants reported that they almost always “wished examinations did not bother so much”. The mean TAI score of the sample was 43.17 (SD = 10.58). There were statistically significant differences in the mean scores of TAI among dental (44.15 ± 0.48), medical (41.64 ± 1.31), and pharmacy (43.44 ± 9.29) students (p = 0.003). The students with high grade point average (GPA) (mean TAI = 41.91 ± 10.43) demonstrated significantly lower test anxiety than those with low GPA (mean TAI = 44.05 ± 10.67) (p = 0.006). Academic grade in the previous year (GPA) remained a statistically significant factor associated with test anxiety (B = −2.83, p = 0.003) in multivariate analysis. This study showed that test anxiety was common among health professions students, and dental students and students with low GPA demonstrated high test anxiety. Students with high test anxiety should be the target of preventive strategies. Full article

Smartphone use can lead to smartphone addiction, which is a growing concern worldwide. However, there are limited studies about smartphone addiction and its impacts on university students in Saudi Arabia. This study aims to fill this gap. This is a quantitative study conducted among undergraduate students in Umm Al-Qura University (UQU), Saudi Arabia from May 2019 and February 2021. Study data were collected using both online and hard copy administered surveys. A self-administered questionnaire, Grade point average, Smartphone Addiction Short Version, and Kessler Psychological Distress scales were used to assess the outcomes. A total of 545 undergraduate students, mostly females, aged ≤ 21 years old and lived with large family sizes. More than half owned a smartphone for 5–8 years and the majority used their smartphone on average 6–11 h per day for social networking (82.6%), entertainment (66.2%) and web surfing (59.6%). Most of the participants were smartphone-addicted (67.0%). Logistic regression analysis showed that age ≤ 21, not gainfully employed, small family size and high family income were the main significant socio-demographic predictors of smartphone addiction. Smartphone-addicted participants were more likely to: have lower academic performance (GPA); be physically inactive; have poor sleep; be overweight/obese; have pain in their shoulder (39.2%), eyes (62.2%) and neck (67.7%) and have a serious mental illness (30.7%). This finding has significant implications for decision makers and suggests that smartphone education focusing on the physical and mental health consequences of smartphone addiction among university students can be beneficial. Full article

Social media usage (SMU) and its relationship with working memory (WM) and academic performance remain unclear, and there is a lack of experimental evidence. We investigated whether WM mediates the association between SMU and academic performance, including the roles of depression, anxiety, and disordered social media use as possible contributors. A sample of 118 undergraduate students aged 19 to 28 from Saudi Arabia performed a WM test twice; for one assessment, participants were required to interact with social media before the test, and the other test was preceded by painting online. We also measured grade point average (GPA), habitual social media usage (SMU), depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), and disordered social media usage (SMDS). There was no significant difference between WM scores in the social media condition compared to the control condition, but when solely considering at least moderately depressed participants, social media use predicted significantly more errors in the social media condition compared to the control condition. Furthermore, higher SMDS scores were significantly predicted by higher PHQ-9 scores and more hours of habitual SMU. GPA scores were not predicted by WM performance or SMU. The present study is one of the first experimental attempts to compare the relationship between SMU and WM and highlights the priming effect of depression on the relationship between SMU and WM. Full article

Body mass index (BMI) is an indicator to detect weight category and known to influence the academic achievements of students. The present study assesses the association of BMI, physical activity with academic performance among undergraduate female students of health colleges, King Khalid University (KKU). Responses from 379 participants were analyzed in the study. Data collection was done by administering an online questionnaire using the university website portal. The questionnaire consists of two sections: the first section includes demographic information along with cumulative Grade point average (GPA) and another section rated student’s physical activity. A high frequency of respondents (53.6%) ranged within the normal BMI category. For academic performance, the majority (79.9%) of students reported high GPA scores with a mean of 4.28 ± 0.41. Upon correlation, academic performance was found negatively correlated with BMI at 0.0001 level of significance, and insignificantly correlated with physical activity. The present study observed that more than half of the respondents had normal BMI. An inverse relationship was observed between BMI and academic performance, showing participants within the normal BMI category achieved significantly higher GPA. In contrast, physical activity directly influenced the academic performance of the subjects. Therefore, the study suggests to enact counselling centers, health clubs in universities urging the students to adopt regular exercise and healthy lifestyle which could prepare them in achieving future endeavors. Full article

The state of boredom arises when we have the desire to be engaged in goal pursuit, but for whatever reason we cannot fulfil that desire. Boredom proneness is characterized by both frequent and intense feelings of boredom and is an enduring individual difference trait associated with a raft of negative outcomes. There has been some work in educational settings, but relatively little is known about the consequences of boredom proneness for learning. Here we explored the unique contributions of boredom proneness, self-control and self-esteem to undergraduate self-reported higher grade point average (GPA). Within educational settings, prior research has shown self-control and self-esteem to be associated with better academic performance. In contrast, boredom proneness is associated with lower levels of self-control and self-esteem. Our analyses replicate those previous findings showing that self-control acts as a positive predictor of GPA. Importantly, we further demonstrated, for the first time, that boredom proneness has a unique contribution to GPA over and above the contribution of self-control, such that as boredom proneness increases, GPA decreases. We discuss potential mechanisms through which boredom proneness may influence academic performance. Full article

Aim: To examine the association between the perceived physical literacy (PL) and physical activity (PA) levels among Chinese undergraduates. Methods: Simplified Chinese version of the Perceived Physical Literacy Instrument and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire were used to measure 536 students’ perceived PL and PA levels. Pearson’s product-moment correlation and multiple linear regression were then used to examine the relationship between the perceived PL and PA levels. Additionally, standard regression analysis was conducted to test for the effects at different demographics. Results: The correlation between perceived PL and PA level was low but significant (r = 0.350, p < 0.01). The multiple linear regression equation was significant (F = 25.228, p < 0.01, ΔR² = 0.120). Metabolic equivalent values were used to predict PA levels of participants, which were −3818.582 + 272.535 (motivation) + 249.848 (confidence and physical competence) + 149.899 (interaction with the environment). The association of factors such as socio-economic status (SES) (p = 0.092) and grade point average (GPA) (r = 0.119, p = 0.022) were examined using Pearson’s product-moment correlation. Gender (p < 0.01) and body mass index (BMI) (p < 0.01) were also explored for their differences. Conclusions: Perceived PL and PA levels were significantly related. The association between PL and GPA was identical. GPA and BMI showed significant difference between each group. The study offers a path to explore the concept of PL and how it can affect the PA of Chinese undergraduates. Furthermore, on the basis of this study, more research could develop practical interventions for Chinese undergraduates to enhance their PL and engagement in a lifetime of PA. Full article