Profile analysis was used to compare the study skills of academically struggling college students to their normal-achieving counterparts using the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI; Weinstein & Palmer, 2002). Comparisons were made between: (a) students with high versus low GPAs; (b) students with a documented learning disability (LD) versus a non-LD control group; (c) students referred for a psycho-educational evaluation due to academic difficulties versus a control group; and (d) clinic-referred students with LDs versus clinic-referred students without LDs. Overall, the academically struggling groups displayed weaknesses in study skills relative to their comparison groups in five areas. When compared to the normative population of the LASSI, the groups also displayed weaknesses in seven of ten areas assessed.

Two competing structural models for the revised Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) were examined. The test developers promote a model related to three uncorrelated components of strategic learning: skill, will, and self-regulation. Other investigators have shown empirical support for a three-factor correlated model characterized by effort-related activities, goal orientation, and cognitive activities (ER-GO-CA). Neither model has been verified on scores from the second edition of the LASSI. In the present sample of 297 college students, confirmatory factor analysis of the subscale scores provided support for the ER-GO-CA model. KeywordsLASSI; factor analysis; college students; learning strategies Learning and study strategies are important factors in understanding the academic achievement of college students. Measures of learning and study strategies can help screen and identify students at risk for poor performance, be used diagnostically to evaluate areas of difficulty that can lead to prescriptive or remedial plans, serve as pre-post outcome measures in evaluating academic treatment programs, and be useful in advising college students seeking a better awareness of their academic strengths and weaknesses. The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI;Weinstein & Palmer, 2002;Weinstein, Schulte, & Palmer, 1987) is a widely used instrument designed to accomplish the above tasks. It is estimated to be in use by more than 1,300 universities and colleges in the United States (Olaussen & Braten, 1998). LASSI scores have been shown to be positively correlated with grade point average, and the instrument is proposed to be an effective tool for predicting academic performance (Yip & Chung, 2002).The LASSI is composed of 10 subscales that allow a student to self-report on his or her thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes related to strategic learning. The original version, with 77 items, was published in 1987 (Weinstein et al., 1987), and a second edition, with 80 items, was released in 2002 (Weinstein & Palmer, 2002). The second edition was designed to update the items, incorporate current research findings and changes in educational practice and instruction, broaden the scope of the scales, create equal numbers of items for each Please address correspondence to Frances Prevatt, PhD, Chair, Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, Codirector, Adult Learning Evaluation Center, 307 Stone, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306; fprevatt@coe.fsu.edu. subscale, improve the inter-item correlations, and create national norms on a more broadbased sample (Weinstein & Palmer, 2002). An analysis of the second edition reveals that all subscales now have 10 items. There are 38 items unchanged from the first edition and 42 items that are unique to the second edition. Of these 42 additions, 12 items appear to be only slightly modified, whereas 30 items appear to be substantially different from the first edition. HHS Public AccessA large body of research exists for the first edition of...

Accessing social media is common and although concerns have been raised regarding the impact of social media on academic success, research in this area is sparse and inconsistent. Survey responses were collected from 659 undergraduate and graduate students to determine the relationship between social media usage and overall academic performance, as well as explore if this relationship is moderated by attention (regulation of time/study environment) and motivation (effort regulation). Both predictors, social media usage and attention, significantly predicted academic performance. Likewise, when motivation was considered as a predictor, it significantly predicted academic performance above and beyond social media usage. No moderation was found between the three variables. Implications of these relationships are discussed.

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