The Relationship between Achievement Goal Orientation and Coping Style: Traditional vs. Nontraditional College Students

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Do traditional and nontraditional college students cope differently with stress? Is there a relationship between type of coping style and achievement goal orientation? Participants were administered questionnaires that measured both achievement goal orientation and coping style. Results suggest that there is a relationship between student status, academic goal orientation, and type of coping style utilized. Specifically, nontraditional college students more often endorsed learning goals and utilized task-oriented coping, in addition to exhibiting a wider repertoire of coping behaviors than did the younger traditional college students. Implications for these findings are further explored in an attempt to outline the role of achievement goals, coping styles, and grade point average in relation to the two groups.

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Dweck and Leggett (1988) argue that there are two distinct behavioral patterns that can contribute to students' achievement goal orientations. Learning goals are characterized as the most positive approach, and generally include a desire to increase competence and continually improve oneself. A learning orientation results in the most adaptive responses, such as increased effort to solve a problem or more perseverance when confronted with a difficult situation (Roedel, Schraw, & Plake, 1994). Conversely, a performance goal orientation is likely to reflect maladaptive responses, and is characterized by a focus on outcome and a desire to avoid negative feedback. This orientation often leads to increased anxiety and an inability to persist when faced with obstacles (Eppler & Harju, 1997).

Previous research has investigated the impact of achievement goal orientations on academic success in elementary school children (Eppler & Harju, 1997; Dweck, 1896), yet little research has been aimed at the assessment of college-aged students. One of the few studies to address the effects of goal orientations on achievement at the collegiate level found that students with a strong learning goal orientation were more apt to succeed in an introductory science course than were students with a relatively weak learning goal orientation (Roedel & Schraw, 1995). According to Dweck and Leggett (1988), performance goals have been correlated with the avoidance of learning opportunities and deterioration of academic performance. Investigations on these two types of goals have demonstrated that the most favorable outcome entails an equal balance between both learning and performance goals (Dweck & Leggett, 1988).

Another study to investigate achievement motivation goals in college students in relation to …