Measuring self-differentiation and academic commitment in University students : a case study of education and engineering students

Abstract

More than half of university students in South Africa leave university before they complete their studies. Factors associated with student drop out include poor schooling, lack of fluency in the language of instruction, poor financial support, and inadequate student support services. In the present study, we focus on the way meaningful commitment influences self-regulation, and we draw on the investment model of commitment to examine the hypothesis that commitment will be related to satisfaction, quality of alternatives, and investment size, and that self-differentiation will provide additional predictive power to commitment. Results indicate that satisfaction and self-differentiation only are significant predictors of level of academic commitment. Meaningful commitment is predicted by satisfaction, quality of alternatives, investment, and self-differentiation to a lesser extent. Investment size was associated significantly with self-regulatory behaviours such as setting learning goals, managing studies effectively, and spending more time on studies. The results are discussed in terms of the literature on commitment, self-differentiation, and academic achievement in higher education.