Examining the Relationship Between Psychosocial and Academic Outcomes in Higher Education: A Descriptive Analysis

Abstract

This article estimates the relationship between students’ psychosocial and academic outcomes during their first 3 years enrolled at public, 4-year institutions. Our sample comprises students from low-income backgrounds who applied for a competitive scholarship and enrolled at a 4-year public institution. We follow two cohorts of entering students throughout their first 3 years on campus. We observe their cumulative grade point average and persistence decisions each semester, and have annual measures of four psychosocial outcomes: mattering to campus, sense of belonging to campus, academic self-efficacy, and social self-efficacy. We find that psychosocial outcomes are moderately predictive of academic outcomes, with sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy emerging as most predictive of both cumulative grade point avaerage and persistence.