Student beliefs about what factors influence their GPA

Author

Emma R. Denelsbeck, James Madison UniversityFollow

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Date of Graduation

5-8-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (BS)

Department

Department of Psychology

Advisor(s)

Bernice Marcopulos

Joanne Brewster

Michael Hall

Abstract

There are many different factors that contribute to grade point averages (GPAs) in college. Students may attribute their academic performance and GPAs to any number of different variables such as stress levels, sleep quality and alcohol use. The current study investigated what students believed had an effect on their GPA, and if these differed based on concussion history. This study examined if students thought that concussions affected their GPA. Participants were University students who completed an online survey consisting of the Texas Evaluation of Concussion History (TECH), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The results of a Mann-Whitney U Test suggested that students with a history of concussion were more likely to report that their concussion history affected their GPA compared to students without a concussion history. But, this was only true for very few students with a history of concussions. Furthermore, there was no difference in the reporting between the two groups for the other variables as well, even among the subset of the population examined. Future research is needed to consider if there are differences between universities in what students report affect GPA. Further research is also needed to determine if interventions in areas students report as having negative effects on GPA are effective in helping students to cope with the factor they report as most influential. This could help to determine what assistance freshman need as they enter a university, and what measures can be taken to help with adjustment to college.

Recommended Citation

Denelsbeck, Emma R., "Student beliefs about what factors influence their GPA" (2020). Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current. 93.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors202029/93