External degree nursing

This study investigated the relative effectiveness of nonintellective compared to intellective factors as predictors of academic performance in an associate degree nursing program. Specifically, the study examined how measures of coping style, personal problems, age, marital status, and employment status compared with academic achievement test scores and high school grade point average in predicting the first year academic performance of nursing students admitted under open admissions to a senior inner city college.

The general hypothesis stated the nonintellective factors (coping style, number of personal problems, age, marital status, and employment status) would predict the first-year academic performance of a student more effectively that the intellective factors (academic achievement test scores and high school grade average). Six subproblems were also formulated to study the relationship between each of the nonintellective factors and cumulative grade average. The conceptual rationale was formulated on the basis of two principles, which facilitate the understanding of the relationship between nonintellective factors and intellective factors as predictors of academic performance. Namely, the behavioral and environmental contextual differences that exist between high school and college and the changes that occur in the student during the transition from high school to college. The sample was 113 first year associate degree nursing student in a senior college in New York City. The students had rich experiential backgrounds but were considered high risk for success due to to their unique needs and characteristics. They ranged in age from 19-57: most were married, had more than one child and were employed full- or part-time. Instruments used in the study were Julian Rotter's Internal-External Scale, the Mooney Problem Checklist, and a biographical data form developed by the investigator. Data analysis techniques were the Pearson and product-moment correlation coefficients, a step-wise multiple regression, and a t-test. The correlation with I-E control, personal problems, age, marriage, and employment yielded coefficients that were not significant at the .05 level of confidence for a one-tailed test. For the nonintellective factors, the greatest (5%) amount of variance in cumulative grade average was attributed to employment (4%) and age (1%). For the intellective factors, 17% of the variance in cumulative grade average was attributable to all three factors with high school grade average contributing the most (12%). To determine if cumulative grade average correlated more highly with the nonintellective factors than the intellective factors, a t-test was performed. It produced a ratio of 4.34, which was significant at the .05 level for the intellective factors as the best predictors of academic performance.

Although, the intellective factors as a group, were better predictors they only accounted for 17% of the variance in cumulative grade average. This was considerably less than the 25-40% of variance associated with intellective factors and academic performance reported in other studies. It was recommended the study be repeated using more sensitive instruments designed to measure personal problems, internal-external control, and academic achievement.

Dolores Brown Hail, PhD, RN, is professor and provost/dean of the Methodist College of Nursing in Peoria, Illinois. Dr. Brown Hall may be reached at 309/672-5515.