Starting school with purpose: Self‐regulatory strategies of first‐semester university students

• DOI: 10.1111/aphw.12407
• Publication Date: 2022-10-11T05:58:08Z
• Authors: Monika Lohani; Gabrielle N. Pfund; Timothy J. Bono; Patrick L. Hill
• Keywords: Schools; Universities; 4. Education; 05 social sciences; Humans; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Students; United States; Problem Solving

AbstractPurposefulness may facilitate self‐regulation; however, little is known about the self‐regulatory strategies that are implemented by purposeful individuals. Given the multiple regulatory challenges students face in their social and academic lives, a central aim of the current work was to consider how purposefulness and self‐regulation are linked during the first semester of university. This 13‐week‐long study was conducted with first‐semester college students (N = 256) in the United States of America to examine whether weekly fluctuations in purposefulness may be connected to the use of traditionally adaptive (problem‐solving) and maladaptive (rumination and experiential avoidance) self‐regulation strategies. Consistent with our hypothesis, at the within‐ and between‐person level, higher purposefulness was associated with greater use of problem‐solving, lower rumination, and lower experiential avoidance at the weekly level. The findings imply purposefulness is an important individual difference that may explain better or worse self‐regulatory abilities.