Motivational and Skills, Social, and Self-Management Predictors of College Outcomes: Constructing the Student Readiness Inventory

Abstract

The authors used a rational-empirical approach to construct the Student Readiness Inventory, measuring psychosocial and academic-related skill factors found to predict two important college outcomes, academic performance and retention, in a recent meta-analysis. The initial item pool was administered to 5,970 first-year college students and high school seniors to empirically validate and cross-validate the underlying factor structure. Ten first-order and 3 second-order factors were derived, partially resembling the original conceptual model. Future study is needed to explore the criterion and predictive validities of the factors constituting this inventory.