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ERIC Number: EJ1185640
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 6
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0897-5264
EISSN: N/A
The Relationship between College Students' Sense of Purpose and Degree Commitment
Sharma, Gitima; Yukhymenko-Lescroart, Mariya
Journal of College Student Development, v59 n4 p486-491 Jul-Aug 2018
For several decades, scholars have been exploring the factors that influence college students' persistence and retention. Several of the retention theories and models have emphasized the role of sense of purpose and degree commitment in contributing to college students' persistence. Students' sense of purpose regarding what motivates them, what they want to do, and where they are going, contributes to their lifelong learning, college persistence, career success, and personal development (Chickering, 1994). Empirical studies have also shown that goal commitment and certainty of purpose contribute to college students' persistence (Hill, Burrow, & Bronk, 2016). Scholars have defined "purpose" in multiple ways. Some have referred to purpose as a long-term goal or commitment that people aspire to achieve (Bronk, 2011). Others have conceptualized purpose as an overarching aspiration to make a positive difference in society or contribute to the greater good (Staples & Troutman, 2010). Damon, Menon, and Bronk (2003) defined purpose as "a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self " (p. 121). Based on this definition and empirical work on purpose, Sharma, Yukhymenko-Lescroart, and Kang (2017) developed the multidimensional Sense of Purpose Scale, which has three subscales: awareness of purpose, awakening to purpose, and altruistic purpose subscales. Altruistic purpose subscale assesses "people's desire to make a positive difference in the world" (Sharma et al., 2017, p. 8). Though everyone's life's purpose is not altruistic in nature, research has demonstrated a positive relationship between prosocial purpose and students' college satisfaction and well-being (Hill, Burrow, O'Dell, & Thornton, 2010). In the context of college persistence, Leppel (2005) found that students whose purpose encompassed aspirations to make a positive difference in society were more likely to continue their college education compared to those who chose college solely to fulfill financial goals. The aim of this article was to examine the relationship between all three subscales of purpose and a student's degree commitment.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A