Motivation and personality traits in adult learners

Abstract

In contrast to traditional students, post-traditional students follow a broken path through the education system. Therefore, they are older when studying and often have jobs and families. The aim of the present study was to investigate motivation and personality character traits in 67 adult learners (part-time students) and 84 traditional students using the Czech version of the Business-Focused Inventory of Personality. Adult learners reported a higher level in all aspects of their personality in relation to working life, such as occupational orientation and behaviour, social competencies, and psychological constitution. These findings indicate that, from study-related requirements, part-time students pose higher achievement and motivation, and that they are more conscientious in relation to work and study.

Keywords

Post-traditional students adult learners personality traits motivation BIP

Introduction

The conventional approach to university study is understood as earning a degree before entering professional life (Salmi, 2001). Traditional students are those (between 18 and 24 years old) who follow an unbroken path through the education system (Shillingford & Karlin, 2013). However, this approach has been slowly replaced by lifelong education, where universities are being attended by mature, working, part-time students (Bennett et al., 2007; Salmi, 2001). These students are thus labelled non-traditional/post-traditional students, or adult learners (Soares, 2013).

Post-traditional students have one or more of the following characteristics: they are older when entering tertiary education, attend part-time education, work full-time, are financially independent, or have dependents. Some of these characteristics often occur together, such as full-time employment and part-time attendance (Choy, 2002). In the USA, the majority of all undergraduates has at least one of the stated characteristics. A third of them entered tertiary education at least one year after high school graduation and almost half attended part-time education (Radford et al., 2015).

Post-traditional students in the USA are a heterogeneous group composed of adult learners, single mothers, immigrants, etc. with different educational needs (Soares, 2013). The situation in the Czech Republic is however different. Post-traditional students are mostly adult learners (only a small percentage of post-traditional students are 24 years old or younger) attending higher education part-time. They comprise only a third of all students, what is also the European average (ČSÚ [Český statistický úřad], 2015; Dollhausen et al., 2013).

Worldwide, part-time attendance is the most common reason for being a post-traditional student. In Europe, adult learners comprise more than 75% of part-time students (Choy, 2002; Dollhausen et al., 2013). As can be seen, the USA has more part-time undergraduate students in comparison with the Czech Republic and they also differ in their backgrounds. However, in both the Czech Republic and USA, the number of part-time students rose steadily until 2010 and then slowly started to recede (ČSÚ [Český statistický úřad], 2015; Radford et al., 2015).

Students' motivation

In addition to the different backgrounds, the difference can be seen also in students’ motivation to proceed in their study. In the USA, 73% of post-tradition students report that personal enrichment or interest in the subject are the most important for them to enrol in higher education (Choy, 2002). However, in the Czech Republic, 65% of such students report work reasons and only 17% of Czech undergraduate adult learners reported personal enrichment (Rabušicová et al., 2008). They may need to obtain additional education and/or a degree for professional advancement (Choy, 2002).

Students’ motivational orientation has a direct effect on their learning. Mastery-goal oriented students want to develop new skills and understanding what is associated with better study outcomes and positive affective and motivational states while performance-goal oriented students care about doing better than others and often choose easy tasks (Pintrich, 2003). Traditional students usually report higher amotivation (the absence of motivation) to study (Novotný et al., 2019) and are more performance-goal oriented. They tend to avoid negative evaluation by selecting easier tasks (Bennett et al., 2007; Eppler & Harju, 1997).

On the other hand, studies have found that post-traditional students demonstrate lower levels of extrinsic motivation, but possess a higher intrinsic motivation to learn (Bye et al., 2007; Kaufman et al., 2008; Novotný et al., 2019). Career advancement was found to be less important for post-traditional students than pleasure and learning satisfaction (Shillingford & Karlin, 2013). They are more mastery-goal oriented, meaning they want to increase their knowledge and skills (Bennett et al., 2007).

Moreover, to succeed at university, students need to have self-regulatory skills and possess high psychological well-being (Davis & Hadwin, 2021). Self-regulated learners monitor their learning and performance and actively regulate their cognition, emotion, and motivation (Sněhotová et al., 2021; Zimmerman, 1990) which is associated with mastery goal orientation (Pintrich, 2003). Learning orientation was also found to be a predictor of academic success (Eppler & Harju, 1997).

Moreover, academic entitlement (i.e., students’ belief that they deserve better grades for poorer performance, external locus of control, and passive participation) was found to be higher in traditional students. Age and full-time work predicted a decrease in academic entitlement (Crone et al., 2020). It was also found that, as opposed to traditional students, post-traditional students have more realistic beliefs and expectations about themselves and their academic performance (Hermon & Davis, 2004).

Barriers to adult learners

While post-traditional students report higher intrinsic motivation, a break in enrolment and older age can be beneficial for them (Novotný et al., 2019). On the other hand, they may be experiencing a wild range of obstacles during their education. For instance, post-traditional students may lack information and guidance towards their educational choices (Bowl, 2001; Tyson, 2020). This emphasises the importance for career counsellors to provide services to anybody at any age, to help the individual make educational or occupational decisions.

Career guidance and counselling is part of the Czech Republic national curriculum. It helps high school students manage their own career paths, understand the professional world, and make decisions regarding their further education and/or occupation. However, students do not fully benefit from counselling. They do not possess sufficient information of tertiary education, study programmes, or job opportunities (Jirsáková et al., 2020; Votava et al., 2020). This can have a negative effect on their motivation to study. Moreover, post-traditional students may experience negative attitudes towards their study from their employer, partners, families, or friends. They have to balance full-time work, family life, children, and education (Bamber & Tett, 2000; Bowl, 2001). It should be noted that single mothers may also need financial support (Tyson, 2020). More often than traditional students, they may leave during their first year of education or without earning a degree (Choy, 2002; Tyson, 2020). Post-traditional students also report a higher need for peer and mentor support, both of whom predict their academic achievement and help increase student retention (Bennett et al., 2020; Johnson et al., 2016). Tyson (2020) states that it is a key responsibility of colleges to ensure career and financial counsellors and academic advisors to help post-traditional students finish their degrees.

Present study

While part-time students perceive themselves first as employees, traditional students may be working but consider themselves as students. All working students, however, reported that work benefited their class preparation. They were able to better translate the theory into practice and, through practical experience, were able to better understand the theory (Bamber & Tett, 2000; Choy, 2002). The aim of the presented study is therefore to identify differences in personality character traits between traditional and part-time Czech students.

It was previously found that conscientiousness from the Big Five is a significant predictor of academic success and post-traditional students possess a higher level of conscientiousness (Kaufman et al., 2008). However, there is a lack of evidence on whether work-related personality traits could also influence study approach. The presented study aimed to fulfil this gap. The Business-Focused Inventory of Personality questionnaire (hereafter noted as BIP) was chosen because it provides a plastic image of key personality attributes in performing a wide range of work activities and motivation (Khorramdel et al., 2014) and may also predict educational achievement (Kaufman et al., 2008). BIP is an empirical method, but not based on any theory of personality. Its aim is not to reveal all aspects of personality, but to assess those personality character traits that are most relevant to working life (Hossiep et al., 2011). The present study will therefore explore work-specific motivation, psychological constitution, and social competences important for work and successful learning in Czech students.

We expected that part-time students with a greater amount of work experience would report higher scores in occupational orientation and occupational behaviour (H1). We also expected differences in psychological constitution (H2) because our sample of part-time students was older than the traditional students. As it is, adults from middle age possessing higher emotional stability and self-confidence (Seitl & Charvát, 2018).

Methods

Participants

The sample consisted of six different groups of students studying guidance in education at the same university in Prague, the Czech Republic. There were 24 men and 127 women. Students were selected purposively; all students from the same study programme in their second or third year of bachelor study were included. There were three groups of full-time students (two groups of students in their second year and one group of students in their third year of study), all equally mirrored by the adult learners groups. All students were taught by the same teachers, the only difference being their full-time or part-time attendance. All students agreed to participate in the study.

Three different groups of part-time adult students (N = 67, mean age 33 years and 10 months, SD = 120 months) were included. They were studying part-time and had either full-time jobs or were on maternity leave. Moreover, they shared a space with their families or partners. They reported delayed enrolment and were financially independent from their parents. The three different same-aged groups of traditional students (N = 84, mean age 21 years and three months, SD = 13 months) included those enrolled in university directly from high school and studying full-time. Zero traditional students had a full-time job, but some reported part-time employment.

Materials

The Czech version of the BIP (Hossiep et al., 2011) was used to self-assess personality character traits. The questionnaire consisted of 210 items. Students rated themselves on a six-point gradient Likert-type scale, ranging from ‘completely true’ to ‘completely untrue’. Data were analysed using Czech national norms for students and adults.

BIP measures 14 personality character traits relevant to work, which are grouped into four behavioural areas. The Cronbach alphas for personality characteristics ranged from .75 to .92. These four areas of behaviour at work are the following:

Occupational orientation: Assesses work-specific motivation, consisting of achievement motivation, power motivation, and leadership motivation scales.

Occupational behaviour: Contains three scales – conscientiousness, flexibility, and action orientation, all typical approaches to work.

Social competencies: Describes the style of interacting with others, i.e., social sensitivity, openness to contact, sociability, team orientation, and assertiveness.

Psychological constitution: emotional stability, working under pressure and self-confidence scales, reflecting on how people maintain emotional control, deal with pressure from working under stress, and be independent from outside judgement (Hossiep et al., 2011).

Procedure

All 151 students completed the questionnaire online. The students also answered questions on enrolment status, previous school attendance, and occupational experience.

Analytical approach

To examine the effect of student status (traditional/part-time) and work behaviour in three parallel groups of traditional and part-time students, a two-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was performed. To examine the effect of student status on each of the 14 personality characteristics, four separate MANOVAs were performed. For each area, the dependent variables were personality characteristics. Separate univariate ANOVAs (Analysis of Variance) followed up the MANOVAs. All analyses were conducted in IBM SPSS 26.

Results

A two-way MANOVA was conducted to test whether traditional and part-time students and students from three different groups reported significantly different scores in personality traits. The analysis revealed a significant main effect towards the status of students on reported personality traits, F(4, 142) = 11.90, p < .001, ηp² = .25. Moreover, separate univariate ANOVAs revealed significant differences between traditional and part-time students in all four areas: Occupational orientation, F(1, 145) = 12.84, p < .001, ηp² = .08; Occupational behaviour, F(1, 145) = 46.83, p < .001, ηp² = .24; Social competencies, F(1, 145) = 5.22, p = .024, ηp² = .04; and Psychological constitution, F(1, 145) = 17.20, p < .001, ηp² = .11.

The mean scores for the four areas can be seen in Table 1. The data indicate that part-time students possess a higher level in all aspects of their personality relevant to working life.

Table 1.

Mean scores regarding four work behaviour areas in three groups of traditional and part-time students.

	Traditional students			Part-time students
	Group 1N = 21	Group 2N = 41	Group 3N = 22	Group 1N = 28	Group 2N = 21	Group 3N = 18
Areas	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)
Occupational orientation	131.71 (19.40)	136.07 (25.93)	137.14 (25.02)	154.36 (27.07)	147.95 (38.34)	151.90 (24.46)
Occupational behaviour	128.48 (18.16)	134.20 (18.63)	141.55 (15.61)	156.79 (15.95)	148.81 (21.64)	161.83 (19.43)
Social competencies	254.57 (24.98)	250.24 (38.34)	258.86 (28.84)	271.54 (29.66)	263.19 (29.34)	265.61 (30.62)
Psychological constitution	130.19 (31.56)	126.02 (32.44)	125.32 (33.41)	156.04 (36.10)	140.48 (33.17)	157.72 (42.82)

There was a non-significant main effect of the student group regarding reported traits, F(8, 286) = 1.46, p = .17, ηp² = .04, and the interaction term between student status and student group was also non-significant, F(8, 286) = 0.84, p = .57, ηp² = .02. This indicates that three groups of traditional and three groups of part-time students did not differ in personal traits. On the contrary, traditional students, as well as adult learners, share a level of work-related personality traits.

Based on these results, an analysis on the personality characteristics of four areas was performed without the second factor (group of students). Four MANOVAs were used to test whether traditional and part-time students reported significantly different scores of personality characteristics in behavioural areas at work.

Occupational orientation

The scores of three personality characteristics, including achievement, power, and leadership motivation, in the area of occupational orientation, were entered as dependent variables. The analysis revealed a significant main effect regarding student status on reported personality characteristics, F(3, 147) = 6.15, p = .001, ηp² = .11. Moreover, separate univariate ANOVAs revealed significant differences between traditional and part-time students in all three characteristics: achievement motivation, F(1, 149) = 17.95, p < .001, ηp² = .11; power motivation, F(1, 149) = 6.43, p = .012, ηp² = .04; and leadership motivation, F(1, 149) = 7.08, p = .009, ηp² = .05. Table 2 shows that adult learners possess higher motivation than traditional students.

Table 2.

Mean scores for 14 personal characteristics in four areas for traditional and part-time students.

	Traditional students	Part-time students
Areas	M (SD)	M (SD)	p
Occupational orientation
Achievement motivation	48.08 (9.22)	54.93 (10.61)	<.001
Power motivation	41.12 (7.59)	44.55 (9.04)	.012
Leadership motivation	46.06 (13.04)	52.21 (15.35)	.009
Occupational behaviour
Conscientiousness	53.11 (11.69)	59.80 (9.32)	<.001
Flexibility	36.95 (9.69)	42.58 (11.80)	.002
Action orientation	44.63 (9.98)	53.25 (9.65)	<.001
Social competencies
Social sensitivity	51.69 (6.69)	52.15 (7.21)	.69
Openness to contact	59.00 (13.03)	66.79 (11.98)	<.001
Sociability	58.77 (9.27)	58.73 (9.52)	.98
Team orientation	43.49 (11.72)	43.55 (10.10)	.97
Assertiveness	40.63 (12.11)	46.10 (11.17)	.005
Psychological constitution
Emotional stability	41.93 (13.73)	49.28 (15.67)	.003
Working under pressure	37.13 (10.61)	45.28 (11.34)	<.001
Self-confidence	47.82 (12.86)	57.04 (14.90)	<.001

Occupational behaviour

A MANOVA result found an overall significant main effect regarding student status on reported personality characteristics, F(3, 147) = 15.56, p < .001, ηp² = .24. Separate univariate ANOVAs were also significant. As seen in Table 2, adult learners reported higher scores in all three personal characteristics in occupational behaviour, including conscientiousness, F(1, 149) = 14.59, p < .001, ηp² = .09; flexibility, F(1, 149) = 10.36, p = .002, ηp² = .07; and action orientation, F(1, 149) = 28.67, p < .001, ηp² = .16.

Social competencies

Results indicated significant differences between traditional and part-time students in personality characteristics in the area of social competencies, F(5, 145) = 3.97, p = .002, ηp² = .12. However, the separate univariate ANOVAs were only significant in two characteristics: openness to contact, F(1, 149) = 14.30, p < .001, ηp² = .09, and assertiveness, F(1, 149) = 8.15, p = .005, ηp² = .05. This means that part-time students reported a higher networking ability. They create and maintain professional relations, but may possibly be dominant in those relations. They also report high perseverance towards adversity. As seen in Table 2, there were no significant differences between two student status groups regarding their reported social sensitivity, sociability, and team orientation characteristics – F(1, 149) = .16, p = .69, ηp² = .001; F(1, 149) = .001, p = .98, ηp² < .001; F(1, 149) = .001, p = .97, ηp² < .001, respectively.

Psychological constitution

A MANOVA was conducted to compare traditional/part-time student psychological constitution, including emotional stability, working under pressure, and self-confidence. Results revealed a significant main effect regarding student status, F(3, 147) = 8.15, p < .001, ηp² = .14. As seen in Table 2, adult learners reported a higher level in all three traits: emotional stability, F(1, 149) = 9.44, p = .003, ηp² = .06; working under pressure, F(1, 149) = 20.71, p < .001, ηp² = .12; and self-confidence, F(1, 149) = 16.66, p < .001, ηp² = .10.

Discussion

The presented study compared the self-assessment of motivation, conscientiousness, flexibility, action orientation, social competencies, and psychological constitution in traditional students and adult learners. These characteristics are relevant for working in teams or under pressure and are important for psychological well-being and academic success (Davis & Hadwin, 2021).

Occupational orientation

As we assumed, part-time students reported higher levels of personality traits related to occupational orientation. We found that part-time students reported higher in all characteristics as opposed to traditional students. This means the adult learners were investing energy to achieve their goals (achievement motivation), leading and motivating themselves and others (leadership motivation), and also desiring to improve the working system (power motivation). Achievement motivation signifies a willingness to deal with high-level personal goals, to constantly self-motivate and translate that motivation into increased performance (Hossiep et al., 2011). Achievement motivation correlates with conscientiousness from the Big Five (Kuba, 2014) which is one of the most important personality traits connected with better learning outcomes (Kaufman et al., 2008) and self-regulation of learning (Marino et al., 2018).

The results can be interpreted in accordance with research, which found that post-traditional students possess a higher intrinsic motivation (Bye et al., 2007; Kaufman et al., 2008; Novotný et al., 2019). Whereas M. Urban and K. Urban (2019) found that intrinsic motivation to learn was highly correlated with self-regulated learning and creativity, self-direction gives students a sense of empowerment that keeps them motivated to study (Sněhotová et al., 2021). Distance learning, thorough communication technologies, and higher motivational levels make post-traditional students more independent, self-directed, and self-regulated learners (Schuetze, 2014; Semmar, 2006).

High motivation proved to be a significant factor in study persistence (Eppler & Harju, 1997). While students in our sample were in their second or third year of study, we assume that high achievement motivation helped them remain at the university. However, as Urban (2019) pointed out, motivation depends on a broad range of organisational factors which can differ in traditional and post-traditional students. This is because, as Eppler and Harju (1997) suggest, achievement motivation and learning goals may give post-traditional students an advantage in school performance. However, this advantage can be reduced due to full-time work commitments.

Nevertheless, setting and achieving high personal goals can be beneficial for post-traditional students’ learning because people who set high goals, score a higher achievement motivation and conscientiousness (Birknerova, 2012; Kauer et al., 2007).

Occupational behaviour

In our study, part-time students also reported higher levels in all occupational behaviour characteristics than traditional students. A careful work ethic, coupled with high working reliability and responsibility, adds an additional learning advantage to adult learners. Conscientiousness was found to be the most important personal job-related trait (Kaufman et al., 2008; Sackett & Walmsley, 2014) and also the most important trait for academic performance. Students who are more conscientious perform better at school (Kelly & Donaldson, 2016). However, our results could be also explained by part-time students' work status and age. Conscientiousness increases with age (Birknerova, 2012; Rantanen et al., 2007; Srivastava et al., 2003) and as one ages, their flexibility and action orientation also increases (Seitl & Charvát, 2018).

Psychological constitution

Traditional students in our research reported lower emotional stability, ability to work under pressure and self-confidence in the area of the BIP psychological constitution which is related to lower psychological well-being (Davis & Hadwin, 2021). Seitl et al. (2016) found that lowered emotional stability and resistance to stress correlate with attachment anxiety in adulthood. Attachment anxiety is a degree of experiencing self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is one of the main factors influencing self-directed and self-regulated learning, because it is a motivational component which impacts a selection of learning goals (Pintrich, 2000; Sněhotová et al., 2021).

While psychological well-being is important for learning and academic success (Davis & Hadwin, 2021), a lower psychological constitution quality may influence traditional students in working situations lacking support or acceptance (Seitl & Charvát, 2018). However, attachment anxiety decreases with age (Seitl et al., 2016). Therefore, we can also assume that the lower psychological constitution in traditional students may be explained also by their age. Moreover, self-confidence was also found to be higher in middle adulthood (Seitl & Charvát, 2018). Therefore, we can conclude that the level of emotional stability, self-confidence, and ability to work under pressure may improve through age. However, as our findings suggest, the psychological constitution of adult learners influences their well-being and self-regulated learning, both important for successful learning.

Social competencies

Surprisingly, we found differences between traditional students and adult learners regarding their social competence. The main differences appeared in openness to contact and assertiveness. Openness to Contact (i.e., one’s readiness to initiate, build and maintain relationships) was found higher in adult learners. This Assertiveness (i.e., the perseverance towards one’s own goals) was also found higher in part-time students and can be explained through higher achievement motivation. Part-time students set high-level personal goals and endure in their achievement.

Yet, in our research, we found no differences between traditional and part-time students' Sociability (i.e., preference for respectful social relations). Sociability was previously found to be important for traditional students predicted post-traditional students' academic achievement (Johnson et al., 2016). Peer support seems to be equally important for both groups of students and it may be one of the important factors which help to increase student retention (Bennett et al., 2020).

As with sociability, there was no difference in the reported level of team orientation and social sensitivity between both student groups. The research by Seitl and Charvát (2018) provided the same results. They did not find differences between adults in early and middle adulthood regarding their level of social sensitivity. Yet, the researchers did find that women show a higher level of sensitivity, as opposed to men. We believe that – due to our sample being mainly composed of students studying social sciences and mainly of women – these facts could affect the results. In further research, students from different study programmes should be compared. For instance, Botek and Sládek (2018) found that personality traits in students from technical university differ from those studying tourism.

While age and some post-traditional personality characteristics predict motivation, academic entitlement, and/or academic success (Crone et al., 2020; Eppler & Harju, 1997; Novotný et al., 2019), we do not assume that differences in social competences were caused by the age of students.

In our study, adult learners were a more homogenous group consisting of part-time adult students and full-time workers from the middle socioeconomic status. As our results indicate, they are highly motivated and conscientious, which may help them to overcome adult learners’ barriers. Further studies should focus more specifically on differences between post-traditional students (e.g., students with a different mix of post-traditional characteristics). While we tested students in their second and third year of the study, further research should also focus on the role of intrinsic motivation in learning outcomes and self-regulated learning (Sněhotová et al., 2021) and on study persistence in the first year (Bye et al., 2007).

Conclusion

The BIP is used as a tool to identify the potential of employees and is used in the field of work/organisational psychology and psychological diagnostics. In our research, the BIP showed promising results in comparing the work-related personality traits of traditional and part-time students, and can be used as a resource for setting personal development plans and foundations for specific trainings, coaching, or other developmental activities. It can be a useful source of information for career counsellors and academic advisors to help post-traditional students finish their degrees by elevating their achievement motivation and peer support.

The results showed that personality characteristics of traditional students and adult learners differ. Part-time students were found to benefit from their age and work experiences, which were connected to self-directed and self-regulated learning characteristics and higher psychological well-being. Traditional students, on the other hand, reported lower levels in all areas of the BIP. Lower reported levels in psychological constitution scale, such as lower emotional stability, ability to work under pressure, and self-confidence, are an incentive for their development, because these competencies are highly sought by employers and also important for successful learning. The results may also reflect generational differences in the workplace, which open the floor to further research questions.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research project was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic, grant VEGA 2/0026/21 and by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, the ETA program, grant Design and Implementation of the Concept and Methodology of Career Learning in Vocational Education.

ORCID iD

Kamila Urban

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