Abstract:

This study tested the prediction of growth-oriented goals by students' perceived educational support and demographic variables. Growth-oriented goals involved distant educational goals, developing the career, and personal growth. Perceived support in the educational domain referred to students’ views of support from academic staff and university in general. Belonging to Russian speakers (an ethnolinguistic minority in Latvia) was an additional demographic factor, which can associate with perceived support and goal-setting. The structural model involved gender, age, graduation, work, ethnolinguistic group, and perceived educational support as predictors of students’ growth-oriented goals. Participants were 584 university students aged 18 to 37 (M = 22.08, SD = 3.78, 65% females, 34% Russian speakers, 20% graduated, and 44% worked). The Individual Future Orientation Scale was applied for the measurement. The results demonstrated that perceived educational support predicts students’ growth-oriented goals directly. Gender and ethnolinguistic group demonstrated significant indirect effects. Females perceived a higher educational support and were more growth-oriented. Russian speakers perceived lower educational support and showed a relatively lower orientation to growth-related goals. It can be concluded that female students perceive the educational domain as relatively supportive, while Russian speakers experience some lack of support in university education.

Keywords:

Perceived educational support, growth-oriented goals, gender, ethnolinguistic group.