Three factors may predict first-year college students' loss of self-control, WVU study finds:
Joining a club that sparks a new interest, playing a new intramural sport or finding a new group of friends may be just as indicative of a college freshman's loss of self-control as drinking or drug use, according to new research at West Virginia University.
Self-control—the ability to exercise personal restraint, inhibit impulsivity and make purposeful decisions—in that first year partly depends on a student's willingness to try new things, including things adults would call "good."
That's a new finding, according to Kristin Moilanen, associate professor of child development and family studies. The study [...] observed 569 first year students ages 18-19 at five points over the course of the academic year. Participants completed the first wave of the study two weeks before arriving on campus and the other four over the course of the year.
The tendency to try new things is one of two indicators—the other is are[sic] maternal attachment—that may gauge which students would benefit from an intervention, the study found.
[...] A third factor, stress, is also likely to blame for college freshmen's loss of self-control, though this was not considered in the study.
"It's probably reflecting fluctuations in stress over the academic year," Moilanen said. "First year students don't have the most accurate representation for what to expect and then they get here and they find that it's fun, but they also find it's stressful."
Stressors, even small ones, Moilanen said, can be more disruptive to self-control than people realize.
Journal Reference:
Kristin L. Moilanen, Katy L. DeLong, Shantel K. Spears, et al. Predictors of initial status and change in self-control during the college transition, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101235)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by crafoo on Saturday June 12 2021, @09:46AM (2 children)
"Self-control—the ability to exercise personal restraint, inhibit impulsivity and make purposeful decisions"
That is a value judgement. A value judgement made by an arrogant, over-protective mommy. Just because she doesn't believe their decisions are not good doesn't make that a universal truth. Did she judge the outcomes of these decisions, or just the decisions against her own personal values?
Also, a fear of trying new things and having attachment to your mommy isn't going to serve a man well in this world. It may make the mother happy, but it will ruin a young man's life.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Booga1 on Saturday June 12 2021, @10:24AM
Indeed. Taking part in new experiences because they are now available doesn't necessarily mean "lack of self control."
Freedom from supervision, the reduced influence of family, the reduced likelihood of social repercussions, a touch of rebellion, and many more factors are all at play in college. For some people it's the first time they're truly free to make their own decisions. Just because the decisions might seem impulsive or poor judgement doesn't automatically equal lack of self control in my books.
As some say: "Just because it's a bad idea doesn't mean it won't be a good time."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 12 2021, @10:26PM
Not really. you're just uninformed. I've got plenty of self-control and I'm plenty open to new experiences. The difference is that I'm aware that there are consequences and costs to new experiences that need to be accounted for. It's one thing to spend a day just living life and seeing what happens, but if you're doing that on a regular basis, you're not likely to get where you want to go in life, unless you've either got extremely low standards or are OK with whatever other folks want to give you.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday June 12 2021, @11:52AM (1 child)
Isn't this breakdown of self-control normally seen as steps to gain independence from their parental units, to actually detaching and becoming your own individual instead of some kind of +1 to your parents?
It's not awfully insightful to say that these young adults do things when away at college they wouldn't do when at home and under their parents supervision. Apparently the more interactions they have with others in the absence of guardians of some kind such as parents mean they break away faster? Still not certain if breaking away is good or bad in their eyes. Loss of self-control is not something normally considered to be good.
I read the article and the intro of the paper but I still don't quite see what the point of their research is or what it is that they actually want to show.
The source link has been truncated, but it doesn't matter much since it's paywalled by Elsevier.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101235 [doi.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 12 2021, @10:31PM
Sort of, not really. Up until kids move out, they've got a ton of control coming from authority figures that can just tell them what to do and punish them for failing to do it. calling that self-control when there are so many enforcement mechanisms in place is a bit questionable.
There's going to be a bit of exploring, but I don't think it's accurate to describe it as a breakdown in self-control when the young adults don't entirely know where they want to go in life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 12 2021, @02:29PM (2 children)
That's why there are so many Mormon PhDs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 13 2021, @02:03AM (1 child)
Sex, alcohol, spare money
Does it every time. Killer combo to turn any bright straight A student into a zombie
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 13 2021, @11:22PM
And vice versa.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 12 2021, @04:19PM (2 children)
When I went to uni at 18 I had all the BS prep about freedom and making choices and blah blah. It was actually fucking tame. I should have drunk more and tried to hook up more. To be fair, I'd already drunk a ton, had g/f's and done acid so was probably "advanced" level for a 1st year. Shouldn't have listened to the BS adult speeches.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Frosty Piss on Saturday June 12 2021, @09:29PM (1 child)
“Sure, bruh”…
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 12 2021, @11:42PM
Brah, why you hatin' on me?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday June 12 2021, @04:21PM (2 children)
We have a term for Lack of Self-Control: immaturity. If you've been prodded and constrained your whole life, to do your homework, go to bed and not stay up late, and even go to school, you may not have learned self-motivation. Add to that helicopter parenting resulting in little to no experience in overcoming adversity, and the immature frosh is likely to be a quitter who gives up too soon.
There certainly can be extenuating circumstances. Externals factors beyond the students' control. There have always been and still are professors who abuse their power to flunk students for reasons that have nothing to do with academic performance. Old professors who should've been retired might be sliding into senility, with their lectures having become garbage, and their deteriorating mental capacity leading to embarrassments and feelings of being threatened by the smartest of the students, to which they respond with rage and bad grades against the young whippersnappers. Then there's the male professor who makes it known to the pretty females in the class, in a very elliptical and deniable way, that they need to give him some sexual favors in return for better grades. I had the misfortune to be studying a major that the administration had majorly screwed by allowing the worst professors across several departments to be dumped into the one I was studying. They were all bitter about being dumped, and they regarded their new assignment with disdain, believing that the major was fake, and therefore any student who wanted to study it had to be an idiot. Had a graduation rate of just 5%.
There can also be too much adversity, as I know all too well. I would've transferred to another school, if that was possible without being forced to pretty much start over, what with schools refusing to honor one another's course credits. And then, after that, to hit the "real" world, and be hazed and gaslighted by PHB after PHB, what's a person to do? How about scrimp and save, until you have enough to retire before you turn 50?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 12 2021, @05:19PM
Dude, you have described the quintessential experience.
You get 18 years of indoctrination and being graded, as if *you* are the one who needs to get up to speed. Meanwhile you can't quite believe your own lying eyes as series after series of incompetents take it upon themselves to critique you and threaten you. In actual fact, you learnt everything you need to know about the adult world in middle school. As soon as the bitchy cliques start to form, you're already there. There's just a period of... potentially the rest of your life... where you think other people with fancy titles are competent and you should do what they say.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 12 2021, @06:51PM
Ah, bad student, eh? You got issues, dude.
No one told you that the University of Phoenix wasn't? Sounds like your life is just over, so really you did not miss much in college.