Out of sight, out of mind: individual differences in students’ experiences of their parents’ motivational messages in higher education

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Remedios, R. ORCID: 0000-0002-7717-6421 and Baikousi, V., 2023. Out of sight, out of mind: individual differences in students’ experiences of their parents’ motivational messages in higher education. In: Psychology of Education Section Annual Conference 2023, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK, 13-14 September 2023.

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Abstract

Objectives Recent evidence suggests that parents’ motivational messages are important predictors of student engagement and motivation in periods before high-stakes exams e.g., A-levels (Remedios et al., in prep). Less clear is how important those messages are when students are at university and away from the day-to-day home-engagement with their parents/caregivers. In addition, the high-stakes value of exams/assessments differ from Y1 to Y3 e.g., most Y1 performance outcomes require just a pass, Y2 grades account for less than 30% of the final degree whilst year 3 accounts for most of the degree. The purpose of the study was to examine how students viewed the value of their parents’/caregivers motivational messages. Method 13 students from Y1 (n=3), Y2 (n=5) and Y3 (n=5) of their Psychology degree at Nottingham Trent University were interviewed using a semi-structured technique and asked a series of questions about the experiences of their parents’ motivational messages. All students studied away from home. Transcribed interviews were examined using thematic analysis. Results The analyses revealed four major themes namely, types of messages, value of parental messages, effects of messages on students’ motivations/behaviour and the importance of doing well. Students seemed to be positively and negatively motivated by wanting to make their parents’ proud and prospect of securing a good job. Most interestingly was a finding that students’ valued parents/caregiver messages less if their parents had not engaged in higher education. Conclusions The findings suggest that parents’ motivational messages are still relevant once students leave home but that some messages in some contexts are less valued/influential. The findings are discussed in relation to student diversity and motivational well-being.

Item Type:

Conference contribution

Creators:

Remedios, R. and Baikousi, V.

Date:

14 September 2023

Identifiers: