The relationship between achievement goal orientation and coping style: traditional vs. nontraditional college students

Although previous research has discovered a link between achievement goal orientations and academic outcomes, little research has attempted to seek out relationships between achievement goal orientations and coping styles. Our results reflect the possibility that achievement goal orientations may be predictive of the ways in which students cope with stress. Further support for this hypothesis was sustained through our finding that those students who endorsed learning goal orientations were also more likely to have a wider range of coping behaviors and therefore utilize both task and emotion-oriented coping. Despite the fact that traditional college students more frequently endorsed performance goals, nontraditional college students also occasionally employed performance goals. This is consistent with Dweck and Leggett's (1988) finding that equal use of both goal orientations is most advantageous to the student. What may also be inferred from our findings is that a wider range of coping repertoires may be predictive of the utilization of learning goals, as substantiated in our sample most frequently by nontraditional college students.

It is clear that our results reveal a relationship between achievement goals, coping styles, and grade point averages. However, more research should be done to determine the amount of power each operating variable has on the other and to what degree it allows us to better understand achievement and coping differences in traditional and nontraditional college students. Future studies might further delineate the differences and similarities between the two groups, providing a clearer understanding of how college guidance personnel might better support effective coping for both traditional and nontraditional college students.

Table 1
Means and Standard Deviations of GPA, Achievement Orientation,
and Coping Style by Student Status

                               Traditional   Nontraditional

Estimated GPA                     3.21
Std. Deviation =                  1.73             3.37
Std. Deviation =                  1.80
Learning goal orientation *      43.20
Std. Deviation =                  7.92            47.56
Std. Deviation =                  6.01
Performance goal orientation     14.58
Std. Deviation =                  5.14            13.91
Std. Deviation =                  4.82
Task-oriented coping *           55.32
Std. Deviation =                 10.02            60.09
Std. Deviation =                  8.65
Emotion-oriented coping          46.35
Std. Deviation =                 11.22            48.65
Std. Deviation =                 12.24

* Means differ from each other at p <.05

References

Brooks, P.R.;Morgan,G.S., & Scherer, R.F. (1990). Sex role orientation and type of stressful situation: effects on coping behaviors. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 5 (6), 627-639.

Dill, P.L., & Henley, T.B. (1998). Stressors of college: a comparison of traditional and nontraditional students. The Journal of Psychology, 132 (1), 25-32.