1 Introduction

Undergraduate students experience many emotions that can impact their academic success throughout their educational experience. Despite this, achievement emotions have been a largely understudied area within educational psychology, aside from test anxiety (Pekrun et al., 2002, 2011). Achievement emotions such as enjoyment and non-test-specific anxiety are also important predictors of student success (Putwain et al., 2020). For example, experiencing enjoyment emotions in an academic setting can motivate students to adopt effective cognitive learning strategies or exert more effort (Camacho-Morles et al., 2021; Obergriesser & Stoeger, 2020), thereby leading to better student outcomes. On the other hand, anxiety may drive students to employ self-defeating strategies such as academic task avoidance (Putwain et al., 2013). Research has found that achievement emotions can significantly mediate the relationship between students’ achievement goals and academic outcomes (Daniels et al., 2009).

Pekrun (2006) defined achievement emotions as “emotions tied directly to achievement activities or achievement outcomes” (p. 317). Thus, achievement emotions include both activity emotions and outcome emotions. Activity emotions relate to tasks such as learning, classroom instruction, and frustration or excitement about encountering difficult tasks (Pekrun, 2006). Outcome emotions deal with feelings about the eventual outcome of the activities, such as shame based on future test scores or pride based on past test scores (Pekrun, 2006). The lack of research on the impact of emotions on undergraduate student success is important to address, given the complexities of the higher education experience (Pekrun et al., 2011).

The existing research gap on a broad range of academic emotions is even more pronounced when it comes to studying achievement emotions specifically in the context of transfer students. It is important to investigate transfer students as a distinct group separate from non-transfer students, as the higher education environment may evoke different achievement emotions for these two groups. One study found that transfer students displayed higher rates of stress and anxiety than non-transfer students (Beiter et al., 2015). Moreover, researchers have found that the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing during the time of this study, had unequal negative impacts on the mental health and emotional load of student parents, minority students, and those from low-income backgrounds (Lin et al., 2021; Nikiforidou & Holmes, 2022). Transfer students are more likely to be older, come from low-income households, work more hours off campus, and care for dependents at home (Duggan & Pickering, 2008; Laanan, 2007). Each of these characteristics may have a direct impact on transfer students’ achievement emotions, and by extension their academic success, that differs from non-transfer students.

Transfer students bring diverse educational backgrounds and experiences when they enter 4-year universities (Duggan & Pickering, 2008). For example, students may transfer from a 2-year to a 4-year university, from one 4-year university to another, from a 4-year to a 2-year, or in any combination back and forth over the course of their education (Duggan & Pickering, 2008). Compared to non-transfer students, transfer students may have a longer history of academic failures or successes to inform their current achievement emotions. While achievement emotions have been linked to academic outcomes for students in general, external obligations such as work or childcare may impact transfer students’ ability to employ certain learning strategies or exert the effort they may have otherwise (Ajjawi et al., 2020). The multiple roles that transfer students often play (breadwinner, parent, caregiver, etc.) may compound the emotional impact on transfer student persistence (Ajjawi et al., 2020). In fact, research has shown that appreciating the intersectionality of student identities is critical to understanding how they experience campuses and the impact that has on their emotions (Harris & Linder, 2018; Master et al., 2016; Nichols & Stahl, 2019; Oikonomidoy et al., 2021; Wilkins, 2014).

Student persistence in enrollment is closely correlated with attaining a bachelor’s degree and the two terms are often used interchangeably (Wang, 2009). Students who do transfer successfully to a 4-year institution graduate at significantly lower rates than those students who begin initially at a 4-year institution (Zhu, 2021). Many factors have been identified as significant predictors of transfer student persistence at a 4-year institution, including academic (e.g., transfer GPA), motivational (e.g., college involvement), and demographic factors (e.g., gender; Wang, 2009). However, academic variables such as transfer GPA or SAT scores may not reflect the full potential of transfer students. Their previous performance may have been artificially hampered by external situational challenges, such as the financial necessity to work while in high school or college (Cabrera et al., 1993; Walton & Spencer, 2009). Instead, motivational factors such as achievement emotions may be better predictors of transfer student success than academic factors (Duggan & Pickering, 2008), as transfer students may rely on motivational factors to achieve their academic goals in the face of obstacles.

Among higher education researchers, there is a growing call to shift focus away from trying to help students adapt to higher education toward greater efforts for universities to adapt to the needs of their students (Tight, 2020). This study aims to shed further light on transfer student experiences and the connections between their achievement emotions and academic success, with the intention of enabling institutions to better support their students. The goal of this study was to provide insight into the impact of enjoyment and anxiety emotions on undergraduate transfer students’ GPA and persistence. Our research questions examined: (1) how enjoyment emotions predict student success for transfer students as measured by term GPA and persistence to the next semester; (2) how anxiety emotions predict student success for transfer students as measured by term GPA and persistence to the next semester; and (3) how negative and positive emotions jointly predict academic success for transfer students.

1.1 Control-value theory

Achievement emotions are typically studied within the theoretical framework of control-value theory. Within the control-value theory framework, achievement emotions have strong relations with student motivation, use of learning strategies, and self-regulation (Pekrun, 2006; Pekrun et al., 2011). The framework has been found to translate across multiple types of learning environments, including online learning (Astleitner & Leutner, 2000; Loderer et al., 2020), making it a valuable tool for understanding how students associate achievement emotions with specific academic or achievement-related activities.

Control-value theory posits that students’ emotions related to past or future success or failure are based on the amount of control they have to change their situation relative to the importance of the outcome of the event or activity (Pekrun, 2006). Studies have found that achievement emotions are relatively stable over time when they relate to achievement activities (Pekrun & Stephens, 2010; Putwain et al., 2013). While achievement emotions related to a particular activity, such as an upcoming exam, may be short-lived or temporary, individuals also display enduring tendencies towards certain emotional responses within the context of certain activities that are linked to their larger, learning-related mastery and achievement goals (Pekrun & Stephens, 2010; Putwain et al., 2013). Additionally, while achievement emotions are generally believed to have a universal structure, their intensity may vary across gender or cultural groups due to differences in perceived control within the academic context (Allaire, 2022; Decuir-Gunby & Williams, 2007; Frenzel et al., 2007; Pekrun, 2006). This may be another important reason to study the achievement emotions of transfer students separately from non-transfer students. Because transfer students report differences in sense of belonging and engagement from non-transfer students, they may show differences in relations between achievement emotions and academic success (Townley et al., 2013; Townsend & Wilson, 2006).

Within the control-value theory framework, there is a reciprocal relationship between achievement goals and their associated achievement emotions over time (Pekrun, 2006; Pekrun et al., 2002, 2007; Putwain et al., 2013, 2018). These achievement goals have been found to be directly related to student achievement outcomes (Daniels et al., 2009). For example, a transfer student’s struggles to pass entry-level courses at the community college level may lead to negative emotions regarding coursework at the university level. They may be more likely to experience anxiety about an upcoming exam. Conversely, another transfer student who has successfully completed an associate’s degree prior to transfer may have positive emotions associated with academic learning because of their past academic success in reaching this goal. They may anticipate an upcoming exam with excitement at the opportunity to show what they have learned. The anxiety emotions experienced by the first student may lead to poor performance on the exam, while the enjoyment emotions experienced by the second student may lead to better exam performance. The feedback loop of past experiences and emotional appraisals can take place in short timespans (e.g., negative feedback from a professor immediately preceding an exam) or across years (Pekrun, 2006).

In a study conducted by Peterson et al. (2015), it was found that students’ initial achievement emotions toward academic tasks had no significant influence on student performance on an exam. However, after receiving their grades back, students’ achievement emotions became a significant factor in predicting their final grades (Peterson et al., 2015). This suggests that achievement emotions may exert a stronger influence once students have reference points on which to base future achievement emotions. This implies that achievement emotions may have a significant relation with academic achievement for transfer students, as they possess previous academic outcomes within the higher education context to inform their future emotions. Consequently, those emotions may in turn influence their future academic outcomes.

1.2 Valence and activation of achievement emotions

Achievement emotions can differ in their valence as either positive emotions or negative emotions. Positive achievement emotions encompass enjoyment, hope, joy, relaxation and relief (Pekrun, 2006; Pekrun et al., 2007). While the valence of each of these emotions is positive, some are activating and others are deactivating. Positive activating emotions, such as enjoyment, hope and joy are believed to contribute to positive academic outcomes (Pekrun, 2006; Pekrun et al., 2007). These positive activating emotions can increase use of learning strategies, effort, and motivation (Camacho-Morles et al., 2021; Obergriesser & Stoeger, 2020). For example, enjoyment emotions related to science learning may prompt transfer students to seek out opportunities outside of the classroom to further engage with the material, such as undergraduate research. The positive, activating emotion may lead a student to devote more attention, and promote intrinsic motivation which leads to better academic outcomes (Camacho-Morles et al., 2019). Conversely, positive deactivating emotions such as relaxation and relief have been shown in some studies to signal to students that less effort is required to achieve positive outcomes, therefore decreasing effort and motivation (Pekrun, 2006; Pekrun et al., 2007). Students experiencing relaxation emotions, for instance, might feel a sense of security that leads them to deprioritize studying or pay less attention in class.

Similar to positive achievement emotions, negative achievement emotions can also be activating or deactivating (Pekrun, 2006; Pekrun et al., 2007). Negative activating emotions such as anger, frustration, anxiety or shame can motivate students to work harder or employ better learning strategies (Turner & Schallert, 2001). There is also evidence of a quadratic relationship between performance and anxiety (Davis, 2014; Keeley et al., 2008). A poor test score may create a moderate amount of anxiety that motivates a student to seek tutoring in that subject in order to raise their grade on future exams. However, if anxiety becomes too high, the student may show task avoidant or self-defeating behaviors. However, whether these behaviors directly correlate to academic outcomes is less clear (Vermetten et al., 1999). Negative deactivating emotions such as boredom and hopelessness are typically associated with poor academic outcomes (Camacho-Morles et al., 2021). Students who experience negative deactivating emotions like hopelessness may uninvest their time and effort or resign themselves to poor grades.

Research indicates that age plays a factor in the difference in effect sizes between positive and negative emotions on academic outcomes. Studies have shown that older undergraduate students tend to report enjoying learning less as they get older and express negative emotions more freely (Camacho-Morles et al., 2021; John & Gross, 2004; Vierhaus et al., 2016). As transfer students tend to be older, on average, than non-transfer students, there may be a stronger association between negative achievement emotions and academic success among transfer than non-transfer students. Furthermore, there may not be a significant effect of positive emotions on academic success for transfer students because of the lower variance in enjoyment.

For transfer students, who are also more likely to experience external obligations such as family commitments or the need to work off campus, enjoyment emotions may not be as strong a motivator to action as anxiety emotions around learning tasks. For example, returning to the previous example of a transfer student who enjoys learning about science, enjoyment could lead the student to seek more opportunities to engage with science, such as undergraduate research. However, if the student is also responsible for caring for a dependent child at home, time constraints may hinder the student’s ability to participate in such an activity, regardless of emotionality. In this way, the ability to connect academic achievement with enjoyment emotions may be a type of luxury more freely available to non-transfer students than transfer students. Conversely, if a student with the same level of commitments experiences anxiety achievement emotions around schoolwork, they may view working harder on academic tasks as an investment they cannot afford to lose, rather than an activity pursued for pleasure.

1.3 Adaptability and achievement emotions

The present survey was conducted primarily during the spring 2021 semester, which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, university students had been taking online courses for nearly a year and had some time to adjust to the abrupt disruption in their learning. However, all students participating in the survey were taking courses fully online irrespective of their preference for virtual or face-to-face instruction. This change in normal undergraduate experience may have had a negative impact on the mental health and achievement emotions of students unrelated to their usual emotional state (Stockinger et al., 2021). Early research suggests that students’ ability to adapt to the changes in instruction brought on by the pandemic—specifically, digital readiness—were closely linked to students’ learning experience and emotions (Händel et al., 2020). For transfer students, transitioning to online learning may have been comparatively easier than for non-transfer students, as it often offered greater flexibility with assignment deadlines and opportunities for autonomous work. The need to adapt to a new educational environment is one of the unifying experiences for transfer students. Although many transfer students find the adjustment process to a new institution difficult (Townsend, 2008), their experience at accomplishing this task may have helped them be more prepared for future learning adjustments. This experience serves as an asset that transfer students bring with them to new situations, enabling them to demonstrate adaptability and perseverance.

1.4 Present study

Achievement emotions have important implications for student academic success (Putwain et al., 2020). The experiences of enjoyment and anxiety for transfer students may hold different significance in terms of outcomes from non-transfer students. Because transfer students come from a variety of educational backgrounds to a 4-year institution, they may have had more opportunities for past educational experiences than their non-transfer peers. Since control-value theory argues that emotions toward achievement outcomes are situated within feedback loops (Pekrun, 2006; Pekrun et al., 2002, 2007; Putwain et al., 2013), the study of how achievement emotions impact outcomes for transfer students may be particularly important.

Within higher education, anxiety and enjoyment are the most-reported achievement emotions experienced by students (Loderer et al., 2020; Pekrun et al., 2002; Pekrun & Stephens, 2010; Respondek et al., 2017). Thus, this study sought to provide additional insight into the impact of these two common emotions on undergraduate transfer students.

Research question 1

How do enjoyment emotions predict student success for transfer students as measured by term GPA and persistence to the next semester?

Hypothesis 1

We hypothesized that enjoyment emotions would significantly, positively predict both term GPA and persistence.

Research question 2

How do anxiety emotions predict student success for transfer students as measured by term GPA and persistence to the next semester?

Hypothesis 2

We predicted anxiety emotions would have a significant, negative relationship with both term GPA and persistence.

Research question 3

Do negative and positive emotions jointly predict academic success for transfer students?

Hypothesis 3

We expected negative emotions to predict academic success even when controlling for positive achievement emotions.

For each research question, additional analyses were conducted to explore whether the relations found between achievement emotions and academic success held for specific demographic groups. The specific groups analyzed in this study were based on age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Given that transfer students tend to be older on average than non-transfer students (Duggan & Pickering, 2008), the sample populations for each study were divided into students under 25 years old and those 25 years and older. Governmental and educational policymakers typically use 6-year graduation rates to measure undergraduate success (Marcus, 2021). Most students enter college at age 18, just after high school (Tilley, 2014), which would make them 24 years old after six years. Additionally, socialized differences and structural sexism and racism across gender and racial or ethnic backgrounds may also provide interesting highlights on the way achievement emotions are related to academic success for transfer students.

2 Methods

All students enrolled at a large, master’s degree granting, urban university in both fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters were invited to participate in an online survey study that was approved by the university Institutional Review Board. In total, the survey was sent to 17,587 students. There were two inclusion criteria for the study sample: undergraduate status and transfer student status, which was assessed by asking, “Did you transfer to [this university] from another school?” There were 9370 undergraduate transfer students enrolled in the spring 2021 semester. Students were sent email invitations to participate in December 2020 with follow up reminders in February 2021 and April 2021. Of the eligible transfer students enrolled at the institution during the time of the survey, 7.7% responded. Relative to the overall undergraduate transfer population at the institution, the study sample was disproportionately women and full-time students. The average age for transfer students in the survey was 31.9 years old. Full descriptive statistics can be found in Table 1.

Table 1 Descriptive statistics
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2.1 Survey measures

The survey examined achievement emotions (ability beliefs and student engagement were also assessed but are not the focus of this paper). For each item, students were presented with two sets of Likert scales and asked to indicate how strongly they agreed or disagreed with each statement. For the first item (T1), students were asked to, “Think back to how you felt before the COVID-19 pandemic started.” Next to the corresponding Likert scale was a second item (T2) which asked students to, “Indicate how you feel now.” All items were presented on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 = ‘strongly agree.’ The focus of the current paper involves students’ responses about their current levels of achievement emotions, not their retrospective emotions, because the retrospective measurements of emotions could have been impacted by students’ current stress and anxiety (Son et al., 2020).

Achievement emotions were measured using 22 items adapted from the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ; Pekrun et al., 2005). Ten of these items measured students’ level of learning-related enjoyment, \(\alpha\) = 0.94. Twelve items measured students’ learning-related anxiety, \(\alpha\) = 0.94. The full list of engagement survey items can be found in Table 2.

Table 2 Achievement emotions survey questions
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Overall, students in the sample indicated that they experienced enjoyment emotions that were significantly higher than the scale mean of 3, M = 3.46, SD = 1.02, p < .001, and anxiety emotions that were significantly lower than the scale mean of 3, M = 2.41, SD = 1.09, p < .001. The two emotions were significantly negatively correlated, r(669) = − 0.42, p < .001.

2.2 Academic success

In this study, term GPA was used to capture one important aspect of transfer student academic achievement. Term GPA is likely to be a more precise measure than cumulative GPA, which encompasses a more longitudinal perspective around student achievement. Term GPA is a better measure to use for several reasons, discussed further below.

First, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it may not be accurate to assume the emotions students experienced at the time of the survey were reflective of their usual achievement emotions and thus not may not be reflective of their cumulative GPA, especially for juniors and seniors. Throughout the pandemic, college students reported decreases in motivation, self-regulation, and hours spent studying (Meeter et al., 2020; Stockinger et al., 2021; Usher et al., 2021). The average scores on the achievement emotion subscales are likely different than they would have been before the pandemic. A follow-up study after the pandemic has subsided in the United States may be warranted.

Second, the COVID-19 pandemic and a statewide natural disaster in February 2021 necessitated many changes for the study institution in their policies and procedures. One such change at this university was a more flexible grading policy during the spring 2021 semester. The spring 2021 semester began with the institution’s normal grading policy. However, due to the natural disaster, the institution notified students in early March 2021 that they would be able to review their grades at the end of the term and choose their grading option. This flexible grading policy gave students the option to change their current courses from a letter grade system (A, B, C, etc.) to a pass/fail system (with pass denoted as ‘S’ for satisfactory and ‘U’ for unsatisfactory). Grades of ‘S’ allowed students to receive course credit toward graduation without impacting their GPA. A ‘U’ grade did not impact GPA, but the student did not receive credit for the course. Students were able to evaluate their grades at the end of the term and then choose the grading method that was most beneficial before final grades were submitted by faculty. A student who chose S/U grading for their course would receive a grade of ‘S’ if they earned the equivalent of A, B, or C. Courses where students would have earned D or F were counted as ‘U’ grades.

Within this study, grades of S/U were not a part of the term GPA calculations. Due to the circumstances of the study semester, this limitation was unavoidable. It is possible that student term grades during spring 2021 were artificially inflated due to the more limited grading range. To account for this possibility, overall term GPA for undergraduate transfer students in the spring 2021 semester was compared to the undergraduate transfer student GPA in spring 2020 (a semester in which grading procedures operated as usual). In both spring 2020 and spring 2021, 14% of undergraduate transfer students received grades of S or U. Although the average term GPA for spring 2021 (M = 3.04, SD = 1.11) was slightly higher than spring 2020 (M = 2.73, SD = 1.39), the difference was not significant. This provides evidence that term GPA in spring 2021 is an acceptable measure of student performance for this study.

In addition to term GPA, academic success was also measured in this study by persistence. Given that all student participants were enrolled in the spring 2021 semester, student persistence was defined as any survey participant who enrolled in, or successfully graduated prior to, the fall 2021 semester. Studies have shown that transfer students frequently encounter academic and integration difficulties in their first-year post-transfer (Hills, 1965). This phenomenon, known as transfer shock, is surmountable as transfer students typically recover academically and attain similar or better grades and graduation rates as non-transfer students if they are able to persist (Ishitani, 2008; Melguizo et al., 2011; Reyes, 2011).

The average term GPAs for transfer students in this study were significantly higher for students who persisted from spring to fall (M = 3.31, SD = 0.94) than those who did not (M = 2.48, SD = 1.47), t(719) = 6.18, p < .001, d = 0.83. Within each of the demographic specific groups based on age, gender, and race/ethnicity, term GPA was still found to be significantly higher for students who persisted versus those that did not. Table 3 describes these mean term GPA differences by persistence. Therefore, it was determined that it was appropriate to examine the two academic success outcomes separately.

Table 3 Mean term GPAs for students who persisted and those who did not
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2.3 Methodology

Enjoyment and anxiety emotion scores were calculated from the mean responses of the corresponding construct (range = 1 to 5). Higher scores on the anxiety subscale indicate higher levels of anxiety and negative affect. Some student participants failed to answer each item on the enjoyment or anxiety subscales. The enjoyment subscale had 6% of student respondents fail to answer each item, while 7% of respondents failed to answer each anxiety item. To address the missing data, multiple imputation was used to account for missing data, as it is commonly argued to be a superior method as compared to casewise or pairwise deletion (Rubin, 1987; Schafer & Graham, 2002). Multiple imputation replaces missing data with values based on multivariate analyses of non-missing data plus random variation (Rubin, 1987; Schafer & Graham, 2002). In this analysis, ten complete datasets were produced using multiple imputation by chained equations (Royston, 2004). These datasets were then combined according to Rubin’s rules (Rubin, 1987). Pooled statistics for the coefficient of determination (R2) and F value are reported as the median value of the multiple imputations as well as the ranges (Craig et al., 2011; Manly & Wells, 2015). The final sample for this study after multiple imputation includes a total of 721 responses.

To determine the impact of achievement emotions on academic outcomes for transfer students, several linear regression analyses were performed. The first and second models regressed transfer student term GPA onto enjoyment emotions and anxiety emotions, respectively. The third and fourth models regressed student persistence onto enjoyment emotions and anxiety emotions, respectively. The fifth model included both enjoyment and anxiety emotions simultaneously as predictors of term GPA, while the sixth model included the same predictors with persistence as the outcome variable. Figure 1 shows an overview of the regression models tested in this study.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Regression models for achievement emotions

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To account for the possibility of familywise errors, Bonferroni adjustment was applied to determine statistical significance of each regression. Since each model was run a total of nine times (whole sample, under 25 years old, 25 years and older, men, women, Asian, Black, Hispanic, and white), a value of p \(\le\) 0.006 was required to reach statistical significance.

3 Results

3.1 Achievement emotions as predictors of term GPA

Separate multiple regressions were run to understand the relation between enjoyment emotions and term GPA (Research Question 1). Overall, enjoyment emotions were found to predict about 1.8% (range 1.6–2.0%) of the variance in term GPA, F(1, 719) = 13.17 (range 11.46–14.73), p < 0.001. Meanwhile, anxiety emotions accounted for approximately 5.9% (range 5.1–7.3%) of the variance in term GPA, F(1, 719) = 45.34 (range 38.51–56.37), p < 0.001 (Research Question 2).

Specific group analyses revealed that the significant, positive relation between enjoyment emotions and term GPA generally held for all specific groups except Asian students, Black students, and white students (ps = 0.11, 0.64, and 0.069, respectively). For anxiety emotions, significant, negative relations generally held for all specific groups. Table 4 describes the results of these regressions.

Table 4 Term GPA predicted by achievement emotions
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3.2 Achievement emotions as predictors of persistence

Binary logistic regression was performed to determine the impact of achievement emotions on spring to fall persistence for students in this sample (Research Questions 1 and 2). In total, 92% of the survey participants persisted from the spring 2021 to fall 2021 term. Table 5 shows the logistic regression coefficient, Wald test, and odds ratio for each of enjoyment emotions, anxiety emotions, and each specific group within the respective achievement emotions.

Employing a 0.006 criterion of statistical significance, anxiety emotions were found to be significantly negatively associated with persistence, where a one-point increase in average anxiety emotions was associated with not being enrolled in the fall term by a multiplicative factor of 0.68. Enjoyment emotions did not significantly predict persistence for the students in the sample using the Bonferroni correction. Analysis of specific groups reveals that the relation between achievement emotions and persistence was not significant when looking at groups individually.

Table 5 Spring to fall persistence predicted by achievement emotions
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3.3 Achievement emotions as joint predictors

Enjoyment and anxiety emotions were analyzed jointly in a single multiple regression model to understand their combined predictive relation with term GPA (Research Question 3). Enjoyment emotion and anxiety emotion scores were standardized using z-scores to allow for comparison across constructs. Table 6 describes the results of this regression.

When simultaneously entered into the model, enjoyment emotions were a non-significant predictor of term GPA in this sample, p = 0.34. The model was significant, F(2, 718) = 23.14 (range 20.15–28.50), p < .001. Anxiety remained a significant negative predictor of term GPA in this model with B = − 0.22, p < .001. For each specific group, enjoyment remained a non-significant predictor of term GPA when controlling for anxiety emotions. When controlling for enjoyment emotions and utilizing a significant p value of .006, anxiety was a significant predictor of term GPA for older transfer students, women, and Black transfer students.

To examine the odds of a student persisting predicted by their average enjoyment and anxiety emotion scores, binary logistic regressions were conducted. The full model was found to be significant, χ2(2, N = 721) = 11.45, p = .003. When combined into the same model, enjoyment emotions remained a non-significant predictor of whether or not a student would persist, B = 0.10, p = .473. Using a 0.006 criterion for significance, anxiety emotions were also insignificant when controlling for enjoyment emotions, B = − 0.35, p = .010. Analyses of demographic specific groups revealed no significant relationships between achievement emotions and persistence when controlling for anxiety or enjoyment. Table 7 describes these results.

Table 6 Term GPA by enjoyment and anxiety emotions
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Table 7 Spring to fall persistence predicted by achievement emotions
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4 Discussion

Achievement emotions such as enjoyment and anxiety are important predictors of student success and academic outcomes (Putwain et al., 2020). This study sought to gain further understanding about the role enjoyment and anxiety emotions play in determining academic success for an extremely diverse sample of transfer students. Consistent with hypotheses 1 and 2, enjoyment and anxiety emotions were overall significant predictors of term GPA. Transfer students who reported experiencing higher levels of enjoyment also had higher GPAs at the end of the term. Although not all tests were statistically significant due to the conservative familywise error adjustment, this general pattern was evident for all specific groups (with regression coefficients that ranged from 0.11 to 0.20), except for Black students. This may be because Black students in higher education experience structural racism, prejudice, and microaggressions that can impact their academic emotions, motivation, and academic outcomes (Gray et al., 2018). However, little research has used a socioculturally-relevant lens to examine how Black students experience achievement emotions like enjoyment (DeCuir-Gunby & Schutz, 2014; Tichavakunda, 2021). Our findings suggest this is an important direction for future research. In contrast to enjoyment, transfer students who reported experiencing higher levels of anxiety had lower GPAs at the end of the term. This pattern was generally evident for all specific groups (with regression coefficients that ranged from − 0.39 to − 0.19). For many transfer students, regardless of their gender, age, or cultural background, anxiety may lead them to avoid academic tasks or perform more poorly on tests (Putwain et al., 2013).

No emotion exists within a vacuum. Studying both enjoyment and anxiety emotions simultaneously was important in this study since students can experience multiple simultaneous emotions around learning activities. Enjoyment emotions were found to be non-significant predictors of term GPA when controlling for anxiety emotions. This was true overall, and for all the specific groups of transfer students in this study. In particular, we found that term GPA was more likely to be predicted by anxiety but not enjoyment for older students, women, and Black students. These groups of students may be especially likely to experience negative stereotypes and bias in higher education due to age discrimination, sexism, and racism (Reyes, 2011; Taylor & Jain, 2017), giving them a lower sense of control over their academic environment (Allaire, 2022; Frenzel et al., 2007). Moreover, these students may experience different treatment from faculty and peers and may also interpret those interactions differently, creating a motivational “microclimate” that differs from the experiences of younger students, men, and white students (Robinson, 2023). However, because this study was correlational, we cannot determine whether anxiety had direct negative effects on GPA, or other factors caused both greater anxiety and lower GPA for these students. Future interventions to reduce anxiety among transfer students, with particular attention to the experiences of these groups, could help clarify the mechanisms involved.

Similarly, for the overall study sample, persistence was negatively predicted by anxiety emotions, while enjoyment emotions were non-significant. In general, achievement emotions were an inconsistent predictor of persistence for transfer students, although anxiety emotions appeared to be more influential. This may be due to the measurement of persistence. There was little variation, with 92% of students persisting from spring to fall, indicating that future studies examining persistence over a longer period and with a larger sample of non-persisting students would be valuable. The findings when enjoyment and anxiety were combined to predict persistence were less clear. When analyzed separately, anxiety emotions did negatively predict transfer students’ persistence. However, this significance disappeared when controlling for enjoyment emotions using a conservative test for multiple comparisons, although the pattern remained consistent. Altogether, the results of the study suggest that anxiety emotions may be a stronger predictor of transfer student academic success than enjoyment emotions.

One possible explanation for the relative increased importance of anxiety emotions on transfer academic success may be the way that these emotions are inhibited by external factors. While an activating emotion typically encourages students to engage more deeply in learning activities, the impact of enjoyment emotions on transfer students may be limited. Pursuing enjoyable activities can be viewed as a luxury for transfer students, who often have full-time jobs or family responsibilities (Myers et al., 2015). In contrast, anxiety can have a detrimental effect regardless of other demands, leading transfer students to engage in counterproductive behaviors like procrastination or avoiding seeking assistance through advising or tutoring.

The findings from this study highlight the importance of achievement emotions on transfer student academic success. However, it is crucial to note that correlation does not imply causation, and so interventions to change achievement emotions will not necessarily lead to more positive outcomes. Nevertheless, identifying this critical variable may make planning interventions easier for institutions who deal with thousands of students who have unique emotional experiences related to their education. As anxiety emotions have been found to be negatively associated with both academic performance and persistence for transfer students, this may be the most crucial priority for institutions to address.

4.1 Limitations

This study was conducted in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, generalizations made about student emotions and their relation to academic outcomes during this time should be pursued with caution (Son et al., 2020). It is likely that students’ general frustration with online learning challenges and general feelings of despair or apathy may have been more related to the pandemic than to their baseline academic emotions sans global crisis (Hilpert et al., 2022; Usher et al., 2021). Future studies that measure achievement emotions longitudinally are needed to provide multiple measurements of emotions, which is particularly important because of the iterative patterns of achievement emotions. Such studies could examine how changes in emotions over time predict changes in academic performance and persistence, controlling for past emotions and performance.

The study presented in this paper examined the relation of achievement emotions on both term GPA and persistence from the spring to fall terms. While persistence is typically a straightforward measure (students graduate or re-enroll in the subsequent long semester), the COVID-19 pandemic created an unusually large number of external circumstances that many students were facing (Davis et al., 2021). Therefore, studies investigating persistence may have been artificially hampered. The reason a student did not persist from spring to fall may have been due to any number of circumstances wholly unrelated to their achievement emotions or performance (Russell et al., 2022). Future research could benefit from replications of this study once university operations have returned to a relative normal standard. The findings there may shed additional light on the impact of the pandemic or any involuntary natural or global disaster on transfer students’ academic success (Sakurai & Chughtai, 2020; Sampige et al., 2023). Another interesting future line of research may involve the returning patterns and academic outcomes of transfer students once the pandemic has subsided (Causey et al., 2022, 2023).

Generalizations about the findings in this paper should also be made with caution due to the uniqueness of the institution studied (Conrad & Gasman, 2015; Nelson Laird et al., 2007). The university from which students were sampled is a completely-commuter, urban, Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and Minority-Serving Institution whose student body is comprised of over 60% transfer students, the majority of whom transfer from a community college.

4.2 Implications for transfer-receiving institutions

Identifying common sources of anxiety for transfer students may help institutions make headway in quelling the negative effects of this emotion. The “impostor phenomenon” describes feelings of inadequacy in comparison to similar others despite evidence of competence (Clance & Imes, 1978). Research has shown that the impostor phenomenon is positively related to negative emotions, including anxiety (Clance & Imes, 1978; Kumar & Jagacinski, 2006). These negative effects of the impostor phenomenon on emotions seem to impact some student groups more than others. Black undergraduate students and women may be particularly likely to endorse anxiety emotions related to the impostor phenomenon (Clance & Imes, 1978; Kumar & Jagacinski, 2006; Peteet et al., 2015). This is consistent with the findings in this study regarding anxiety emotions and their impact on term GPA. Despite the fact that transfer students from community colleges have already demonstrated competence by meeting the admissions requirements of a 4-year institution and successfully navigating the transfer process, these students may also be more likely to encounter feelings of impostor phenomenon as they work to acclimate to a new environment that is more academically rigorous (Blaney & Barrett, 2021; Shaw et al., 2019).

To address students’ achievement emotions and the negative impact of the impostor phenomenon on transfer students’ anxiety, there are several approaches universities might consider. Some research has found that creating shared space for individuals to normalize conversations about the impostor phenomenon and collectively share experiences can be therapeutic and helpful in easing the negative impact (Trotman, 2009). For transfer students, this may take the form of organized learning communities, transfer student organizations, or even group counseling sessions. Some institutions have instituted programming that specifically focuses on the impostor phenomenon and debunking common student myths about belonging on their campuses as a part of new student orientation (Parkman, 2016). Socialization has also been found to be a key factor for transfer students’ adjustment to a new campus and influential for their academic success (Blaney & Barrett, 2021; Laanan, 2001). Focusing on helping transfer students find ways to become socially engaged in the campus community may help to ease feelings of anxiety and increase students’ sense of belonging.

Because achievement emotions operate in feedback loops, it may also be important for universities to actively pursue interventions that help transfer students adopt growth mindset strategies in order to mitigate some of the negative effects of anxiety emotions on future academic success based on past poor performance. Growth mindset, generally, is the idea that ability is malleable rather than fixed (Dweck, 2006; Dweck & Master, 2009). With a growth mindset, students can use past academic obstacles as learning experiences to grow from rather than an indicator of low ability which may lead to feelings of anxiety around learning tasks. Individuals who frequently interact with students such as faculty and advisors can use strategies like incorporating subtle growth mindset messaging into everyday communication (Blackwell et al., 2007; Kyte et al., 2020; Murphy & Dweck, 2010). For example, they might remind students of how much progress they have already made or emphasize that desired skills have not been acquired “yet” (implying that future success is only a matter of time and effort). Such messages may have substantial impacts on students’ feelings of enjoyment and anxiety in learning contexts (Blackwell et al., 2007; Kyte et al., 2020; Murphy & Dweck, 2010).

Much transfer literature discusses the importance for universities to embrace a “transfer receptive” culture that helps transfer students to integrate more seamlessly into campus life and develop a strong sense of belonging and ties to the university (Hausmann et al., 2007; Herrera & Jain, 2013; Jain et al., 2011; York & Fernandez, 2018). These are all factors which have been found to be positively linked to student academic success and retention (Laanan et al., 2010; Morrow & Ackermann, 2012). Although enjoyment emotions were not a strong predictor of academic success when controlling for anxiety emotions in the current study, enjoyment emotions are important for student success in their own right as they have implications for students’ motivation, learning behaviors and overall academic success (Allaire, 2022).

5 Conclusion

Investing in strategies that make a campus more receptive for transfer students may be one way to help ease feelings of anxiety and increase enjoyment emotions. Studies show that successful academic and social adjustment to a new institutional environment is critical to transfer student success (Fematt et al., 2019; Laanan, 2001). Programming such as transfer student seminar courses for first-year transfer students, targeted advising and mentoring, transfer learning communities, peer mentoring, and intentional orientation programming may help to overcome some of the negative effects of anxiety emotions. Achievement emotions are an integral part of transfer students’ experiences in higher education, creating opportunities for institutions to improve their students’ educational outcomes.