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The Role of Academic Validation in Developing Mattering and Academic Success

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Abstract

We use survey data from three four-year campuses to explore the relationship between academic validation and student outcomes during students’ first 3 years in college using structural equation modeling. We examine both a psychosocial outcome (mattering to campus) and an academic outcome (cumulative GPA). We find that both frequency of interactions with faculty and feelings of academic validation from faculty are positively related to students’ feelings of mattering to campus and cumulative GPA in their third year. Our results suggest that academic validation, beyond the frequency of faculty–student interactions, is an important predictor of students’ psychosocial and academic success.

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Data Availability

The data used for this analysis are restricted-used and under the purview of the Promoting At-promise Student Success project. Interested researchers may apply to access the data. The survey used was for this research was compiled by researchers at the Pullias Center for Higher Education. Certain scales on the survey were used with permission from other research organizations; the survey instrument used for this study may not be used without appropriate permissions for all scales on the survey.

Code Availability

All analyses were conducted in Stata; code is available from the authors upon request.

Notes

  1. A concern with this modeling decision is that our estimates of the relationships between validation and faculty interactions, respectively, and third-year GPA may include the indirect relationship between prior (e.g., T1) validation and faculty as well as the direct relationship between the T2 measurements and third-year GPA. When we include students’ high school, first semester, first year, second year, and third year GPA, we find no significant relationship between students’ first-year faculty interactions and second-year GPA and a small, marginally significant relationship between first-year validation and second-year GPA, mitigating this concern. We also estimate the model including lagged direct paths between first-year validation and faculty interactions and third-year GPA; we find similar results to those presented below affirming the importance of second-year validation for predicting third-year GPA, again mitigating concerns of bias in our main estimates. However, a conservative interpretation of our results is as the cumulative relationship between second-year student-initiated interactions with faculty and feelings of academic validation with GPA. Goodness-of-fit measures are similar across specifications.

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Funding

This project received support from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard University, 50 Church St, Fourth Floor, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Elise Swanson

  2. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

    Darnell Cole

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  1. Elise Swanson
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Correspondence to Elise Swanson.

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We would like to thank Adrianna Kezar, Tatiana Melguizo, Ronald Hallett, Gwendelyn Rivera, KC Culver, Joseph Kitchen, Rosemary Perez, Robert Reason, Matt Soldner, Mark Masterton, Evan Nielsen, Cameron McPhee, Samantha Nieman, and all the other members of the broader mixed-methods evaluation team for designing and implementing the Longitudinal Survey of Thompson Scholars, for helping us get a better understanding of the program and providing feedback on previous versions of this manuscript. We would also like to thank Gregory Hancock for his assistance with the structural equation modeling. Finally, we would also like to thank the staff at the Thompson Scholars Learning Communities for their reflections and continued work to support at-promise students. This study received financial support from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. Opinions are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the granting agency or of the authors’ home institutions.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 5, 6, and 7.

Table 5 Factor loadings of faculty–student interactions, academic validation, and mattering to campus (measurement model, structural paths between validation, faculty interactions, and mattering to campus)
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Table 6 Factor loadings of faculty–student interactions and academic validation (measurement model, structural paths between validation, faculty interactions, and cumulative GPA)
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Table 7 Measurement model: academic validation, mattering to campus (factor loadings)
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Swanson, E., Cole, D. The Role of Academic Validation in Developing Mattering and Academic Success. Res High Educ 63, 1368–1393 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-022-09686-8

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