Factors Affecting College Students' Learning Styles: Family Characteristics Which Contribute to College Students Attitudes toward Education and Preferences for Learning Strategies

Explores the influence of family characteristics on attitudes toward education & on learning styles of college students, drawing on questionnaire & inventory data from 83 students at a midwestern university. Results suggested that a directive family influence lowered the efficacy & assertion of college students; the reverse was true of nondirective families. Also, families that emphasized mercenary motives for going to college lowered academic interest & raised the agentic (task-focused) behavior of college students. Authoritarian families lowered student concern with form & appearance & raised their tendency to process elaboratively (self-actualizing) while studying, perhaps indicating an attempt to achieve independence through rebellion. 1 Table, 8 References. Adapted from the source document.