Methods

1. Research Design
2. Respondents of the Study
3. Sampling Procedure
4. Research Instruments
5. Research Procedure
6. Methods of Analysis

1
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

◦ The driving section to complete the whole

study

◦ The type of technique suited to carryout the

investigation of the problem.

2
Research Design
◦ refers to the overall strategy that you
choose to integrate the different
components of the study in a coherent and
logical way, thereby, ensuring you will
effectively address the research problem. It
constitutes the blueprint for the collection,
measurement, and analysis of data. Note
that your research problem determines the
type of design you can use, not the other
way around!

3
1. HISTORICAL METHOD
◦ Employed in a study that requires to establish the
history of a place, institution, or development of a
community

◦ Concerned with the data in the past relevant in the

present.

4
2. DESCRIPTIVE METHOD

◦ Suitable to problems that aims to find out the present

conditions of the problems

◦ Concerned to study the present status of the subject,

problem or other variables.

5
Survey
◦ Used when you intend to gather a relatively limited
data from a relatively large number of subjects.

◦ 1. Descriptive Survey—uses questionnaire or other

instruments to generate data prepared by the
researcher.

◦ 2. Descriptive Normative Survey– deals with

standardized sources of data like mental ability tests,
performance questionnaires, leadership
questionnaires which have norms.

6
3. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
◦ Used to determine the relationship of the variables:
the controlled and uncontrolled variables

◦ Requires scientific procedures and testing of

hypothesis.

7
Subjects/Respondents of the
Study
◦ The subjects signify the group of persons under study.

◦ Ideally, for descriptive research design, 100 subjects

are used for thesis and 100 to 300 for dissertation. For
collegiate thesis 30-50 subjects are accepted.

8
Types of Subjects
Respondents. It means group of people who respond
to the questionnaire or the sample who answers the
questionnaire.

Informants. It means people who provide the source of

information without the questionnaire

Participants. It means people who participates in the

research activities.

9
Sampling Procedure

◦ POPULATION- the total number of the people

occupying the area or the setting of the study.

SAMPLE—unit of a population needed.

10
Sampling SIZE
The sample size is determined by the following factors:
1. Size of population
2. Character of the population
-heterogeneous—larger samples
-homogenous—smaller samples
3. Setting of the Study
4. Level of thesis
5. Purpose of investigation
6. Instruments to be used
7. The research method
--experimental—about 20 or more subjects
--surveys—at least 10% of the entire population
--descriptive—depends on the level of thesis
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Types of Sampling Technique
◦ Random Sampling- every member of the population
has an equal chance to be selected as a sample.
1. Lottery sampling
2. Stratified sampling
3. Cluster sampling
4. Multi-Stage Sampling

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Lottery Sampling

Steps:
1. Assigned numbers to the population.
2. Place in a container and sake.
3. Then pick the desired number of sample based on
the Slovin’s Formula

13
Stratified Sampling

Steps:
1. Identify your population and its different strata.
2. Determine the percent share of each stratum with
respect to the population.
3.Multiply the percent share of each department to the
number of sample.

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Department Population Percent N(Sample)
Share
SBAA 250 51.02 50

SEAFA 120 24.49 24

SICS 85 17.35 17

SEAS 20 4.08 4

CTVED 15 3.06 3

Total 490 100 98

15
Cluster Sampling

◦ The same steps used in stratified sampling.

◦ It means grouping the members of the population

according to characteristics or traits, location,
language, religion, occupation, gender, age

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Multi-Stage Sampling
Steps:
1st stage- Enumerate all the 12 regions of the Phils. including their
municipalities.
2nd Stage- From the 12 regions, select three at random.
3rd stage- From these three regions, we select two provinces.
4th stage-From these two provinces, select three municipalities.

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Non-Random sampling
1. Purposive sampling – This is based on certain
criteria laid down by the researcher.
2. Convenience sampling- This is based on the
researcher’s convenience.
3. Systematic Sampling – This method involves every
nth element of a series. (e.g. interval of 5)
4. Incidental sampling- There are no criteria used,
the only basis is convenience, accessibility and
accidental meeting.
5. Quota sampling-The preference of the researcher
on how many percent of the population will he
considers.

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Research Instruments

Pertains to the tools or devices employed by the

researcher to gather information.

19
Forms of Instruments
1. Questionnaire- is a series of questions administered through
writing.
The questionnaire can also be in the form of checklist,
attitude scale and inquiry form.

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Guidelines in constructing a
questionnaire
1. The questionnaire should have a cover letter.
2. It should have a clear direction.
3. It must be short
4. It must have single meaning wordings.
5. The choices should elicit only one possible answer.
6. Avoid questions that offend.
7. Items must be easy to tabulate.
8. The appearance must be presentable.

21
Validating a questionnaire

First, CONSULTATION WITH THE EXPERT

Second, INSTRUMENTAL TRIAL

◦ Dry run
◦ To some people in the area of study who are not
included in the sample
Third, REVISION OF THE DRAFT

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Best & Khan: Types of Attitudinnaire

1. LIKERT SCALE (by Likert)

◦ Summation of a series of items drawn from the

problem each of which is rated by respondents
to indicate his degree of agreement and
disagreement
◦ awith 5 possible responses
◦ With corresponding symbols
◦ scale value

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Commonly Used Five-point Rating
Scale
5 4 3 2 1

Always Often Sometimes Seldom Never

Excellent Very good Good Poor Very Poor

Very much Much Just enough Little Very Little

Very much Quite much Much Not so much Not at all

needed needed needed needed needed

Strongly Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree

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Research Instruments
INTERVIEW- (Oral Questionnaire)
-is a series of questions administered orally.
-free conversation
-between the investigator and interviewee.

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Structured Interview
-directive or guided interview
-questions are prepared in advance
-it has an answer sheets

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Non-structured Interview
-non-directive interview
-spontaneous conversations
-natural flow of thoughts and feelings

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DO’s of the Interviewer
1. Be polite
2. Be punctual in the appointment
3. Be ready with clear and short question
4. Be a good listener
5. Be organized during the interview
6. Be humble all the time
7. Be tolerant and appreciative

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DON’Ts of the Interviewer
1. Don’t be argumentative
2. Don’t dominate the interview
3. Don’t use high sounding words
4. Don’t be arrogant
5. Don’t relate personal experiences
6. Don’t be sarcastic

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Research Instruments
OBSERVATION

◦ is to monitor the activities of the subjects regarding

behavior practices and beliefs.
◦ Documentation and clarity of description are to be
noted well

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Research Instruments
EXPERIMENTATION

◦ determine the cause and effect of something in a

laboratory.

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Research Instruments
DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS

◦ Making use of records filed in an office/institution as a

data.

32
Methods of Analysis

◦ The statistical tool used in the analysis of data

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Statistical Tools
1. Frequency count and percentage- to describe the
profile of the respondents
2. Weighted Mean- To determine the attitude,
perceptions, feelings and opinion of the
respondents if the scales are 3 options, 4 options 5,
options questionnaire
3. T-test – To measure the significance difference
between 2 groups (ex. Gender)
4. ANOVA- To determine the significant difference
among 3 groups (ex. Educ. Attainment
5. Pearson r- to determine the significant relationship
between two variables.

34
EXAMPLE:
Descriptive method of research was used
in the study. Questionnaire was used to collect
data from the SMEs in Region 2. A panel of
experts examined the initial questionnaire for
content validity. To test its reliability, pilot
testing was done. Twenty SME owners/managers
were randomly chosen as respondents prior to
data collection. The data gathered were treated
using the statistics reliability test with 0.932
reliability. Omissions and modifications were
made to some of the items on the questionnaire
based on their feedback. Most of the items in
the final version of the questionnaire was
measured on a 5-point Likert-scale ranging from
1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
35
 Participants were the SMEs in Region 2 who used the
internet in browsing, reviewing and eventually purchasing
products or services. SMEs that are using the internet in
placing their orders and pay it through cash on delivery were
considered as respondents. The respondents of the study
were the owners/managers of SMEs who are into service and
trading business. They were chosen based on the list of
registered SMEs from 2007 – 2011 provided by the DTI.
The SME-respondents should have an asset size of P300,000
and above. They were chosen as respondents because they
play an important role in online shopping and represent a
long-term potential market. It is assumed that they are the
most benefited using online shopping, since they value most
of their time, effort and money in maintaining their
inventories.

36
 A purposive sampling procedure was used in
the study. Questionnaires were personally
distributed by the researcher in the three major
component cities in the region namely Tuguegarao,
Cauayan and Santiago. Ilagan city was not
included in the study since it is a newly approved
city in the region. There were 200 questionnaires
floated to SMEs who are into online shopping and
163 were retrieved. However, out of 163 only 129
respondents answered completely all items in the
questionnaire, hence, the 34 respondents were
not included in the study.

For the data analysis, frequency and mean

were utilized.

37
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
RESULTS
Tells about the outcomes/findings of the research study
Presents the data and findings, ordered/analyzed in ways written in the Methods
section and in the Research Objective and Questions
Figures and tables are written here
DISCUSSION
What does the results or data from the data gathered mean is descried in this section
Function of discussion is to:
Interpret results in light of what was already known about the topic and
Explain new understanding of the problem after taking results into consideration
Explain how the results answer the question under study.
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results Discussion
Core of the research/research paper Stating cause for particular results
Data generated by doing research, after validation Discuss the meaning of the results
and verification is written
Results are important in answering the objectives Stating clearly what their significance is.

Findings of the research Compare the results with theoretical expectations.

PRESENTATION OF DATA
Table and figures (photographs, drawings, graphs and flow diagrams) are often used
to present details whereas the narrative section of result tends to be used to present
the general findings.
Numerical data can usually be presented more effectively in tables or graphs than in
the text
The order of presentation of the result should be either chronological to correspond
with the methods or from the most to the least important.
TABLE
 A table is an organized set of data elements (values) using a model of vertical columns (which are
identified by their name) and horizontal rows.

CHART
 A chart is a graphical representation of data, in which “the data” is represented by symbols, such as in
a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart.
 A chart represent tabular numeric data

GRAPHICS
 Graphics are visual images or design used for pictorial representation of data.
PURPOSE OF THE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
SECTIONS
They answer these questions:
What is the answer?
What are the implications of your answer?

These two questions are the object of the results and discussion sections, respectively.
DISCUSSION
The objective here is to provide an interpretation of your results and support for all
of your conclusions, using evidence from your experiment and generally accepted
knowledge, if appropriate. The significance of findings should be clearly described.
WRITING THE DISCUSSION
State the major findings of the study.
The discussion should begin with a statement of the major findings of the study. This
should be the very first paragraph in the discussion. It should be direct, declarative
and succinct proclamation of the study results.
However, it should not include data or reference to the study design. Several
examples illustrate the point.
“the results confirm that…” this clearly states the most important finding of that study.
“the findings suggest that...” that is a good example of a direct, declarative and
succinct proclamation of the study results.
WRITING THE DISCUSSION
Interpret your data in the discussion in appropriate depth.
This means that when you explain a phenomenon you must describe mechanisms that may account for the
observation.
If your results differ from your expectations, explain why that may have happened.
If your results agree, then describe the theory that the evidence supported.
It is never appropriate to simply stat that the data agreed with expectations, and let it drop at that.
Research papers are not accepted if the work is incomplete.
Draw what conclusions you can based upon the results that you have, and treat the study as a finished work.
You may suggest future directions, such as how the experiment might be modified to accomplish another
objective.
Explain all of your observations as much as possible, focusing on mechanisms.
WRITING THE DISCUSSION
Relate the findings to those of similar studies
no study is so novel and with such a restricted focus that it has no relation to other previously
published papers.
The discussion section should relate your study findings to those of other studies. Questions
raised by previous studies may have served as the motivation for your study.
The findings of other studies may support your findings, which strengthens the importance of
your study results.
It is also important to point out how your study differs from other similar studies.
Make suggestions for further research
Acknowledge the study’s limitations.
ELEMENTS TO INCLUDE IN THE DISCUSSION
State the study’s major findings
Explain the meaning and importance of the findings.
Relate the findings to those of similar studies.
Consider alternative explanations of the findings.
State the clinical relevance of the findings
Acknowledge the study’s limitations
Make suggestions for further research
THINGS TO AVOID IN THE DISCUSSION
Overpresentation of the results
Unwarranted speculation
Inflation of the importance of the findings
Conclusions that are not supported by the data
Writing the Data
Analysis/Results
Presenting the Analysis of Data

 In this part of research writing there is a great deal of variation.

 Different types of research will have different ways of presenting the
data.
 For example, a thesis in oral history and one in marketing may both
use interview data that has been collected and analysed in similar
ways, but the way the results of this analysis are presented will be
very different because the questions they are trying to answer are
different. The presentation of results from experimental studies will be
different again.
 In all cases, though, the presentation should have a logical
organization that reflects:
 the aims or research question(s) of the project (including any
hypotheses that have been tested)
 the research methods and theoretical framework outlined earlier in
the thesis)
 Remember You are not simply describing the data. You need to
make connections with the aims, research. questions), and make
apparent your reasons for saying that data should be interpreted in
one way rather than another.
Function

 to objectively present your key results, without interpretation, in an

orderly and logical sequence using both text and illustrative
materials (Tables & Figures)
 to sum up responses from respondents
 to draw conclusions
Organisation of data

 Presented in the order of the research questions and hypotheses

 For each RQ or H
 Statistical test used
 Results of the test
 Significance level of the test
 Description connecting statistical results to support for or rejection of H
or to answer RQ
Reporting the Results

 Tables summarize statistical information

 Give title to each table/graph/chart
 Present one table for each statistical test
 Organize data into rows and columns with simple and clear
headings
 Report notes that qualify, explain, or provide additional information
in the tables, which can be helpful to readers. Notes include
information about the size of the sample reported in the study, the
probability values used in hypothesis testing, and the actual
significance levels of the statistical test
Reporting the Results (cont'd)

 Figures (charts, pictures, drawings) portray variables and their

relationships
 Labeled with a clear title that includes the number of the figure
 Augment rather than duplicate the text
 Convey only essential facts
 Omit visually distracting detail
 Easy to read and understand
 Consistent with and are prepared in the same style as similar figures
in the same article
 Carefully planned and prepared
Reporting the Results (cont d)

 Detailed explanations about statistical results

 Report whether the hypothesis test was significant or not
 Provide important information about the statistical test, given the
statistics
 Include language typically used in reporting statistical results
Simple rules to follow relating to
Tables and Figures
 Tables and Figures are assigned numbers separately and in
sequence that you refer to them from the text.
 The first Table you refer to is Table 1, the next Table 2 and so forth.
 Similarly, the first Figure is Figure 1, the next Figure 2. etc.
Simple rules to follow relating to
Tables and Figures
 Each Table or Figure must include a brief description of the results
being presented and other necessary information in a legend.
 Table legends go above the Table: tables are read from top to
 Figure legends go below the figure: figures are usually viewed from
bottom to top.
 When referring to a Figure from the text. "Figure" is abbreviated as
Fig..eg. Fig. 1. Table is never abbreviated, e.g.. Table 1.
Style

 Write the text of the Results section concisely and objectively.

 The passive voice will likely dominate here, but use the active voice
as much as possible.
 Avoid repetitive paragraph structures.
 Do not interpret the data here.
Example 1:

 This example highlights the trend/difference that the author wants

the reader to focus:
 The duration of exposure to running water had a pronounced effect
on cumulative seed germination (Fig. 2). Seeds exposed to the 2-
day treatment had the highest cumulative germination (84%), 1.25
times that of the 12-h or 5- day groups and 4 times that of controls.
Example 2:

 In contrast, this example strays subtly into interpretation by referring

to optimality (a conceptual model) and tying the observed result to
that idea:
 The results of the germination experiment (Fig. 2) suggest that the
optimal time for running-water treatment is 2 days. This group
showed the highest cumulative germination (84%), with longer (5 d)
or shorter (12 h) exposures producing smaller gains in germination
when compared to the control group.
Example 3:

 Figure 1 shows the proportion of male and female students in their choice of
service provider according to the factors of better coverage. customer service,
lower rates and popularity of brand names. There are differences and similarities
in the selection of the features of service provider by both male and female
students of Permata University. The biggest difference between the two genders
were in the selection of lower rate and popularity of the service provider. In the
selection of lower rate, male students made up 48 percent of the respondents.
On the contrary, the percentage of female students who selected lower rate
was just 10 percent. However the trend was the reverse when it comes to the
factor of popular brand name product. Here, male students chose popularity of
service provider with 10 percent, whereas female students put more value on
popularity of service provider with 35 percent. For the other feature, female
students regarded better coverage as more important with a percentage of 30
percent. In contrast, only 17 percent of males selected this feature. The only
feature of the service provider that had similar percentage by both genders was
the customer service. Here the percentage of male and female students who
selected customer service was 25 percent.
Summary

 There are generally accepted guidelines for how to display data

and summarize the results of statistical analyses of data about
populations or groups of people. However, this display needs to be
presented in an informative way.
 Describe the sample.
 Remind the reader of the research question being addressed, or the
hypothesis being tested.
 Tell the reader what you want him/her to get from the data.
 State which differences are significant
 Highlight the important trends and differences comparisons
 1

UNIVERSITY OF SAINT LOUIS

Tuguegarao City

RESEARCH FORMAT
(Students and Faculty Researches; Theses and Dissertations)

A. NUMBER OF PAGES AND LAYOUT

1. Number of pages: maximum of seven (7) for research proposal and maximum of fifteen
(15) for full paper (8.5 x 11 bond paper) excluding appendices
2. Text spacing: single with one space allotted in between sections and paragraphs.
3. Font type and size: Arial, 11
4. Indention: 1.5 left margin and 1 “ on all sides
5. Pagination : top right

B. PARTS OF THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

• Title
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Background of the Study
• Statement of the Problem and Research Questions
• Significance of the Studies
• Literature Review
• Underpinning Theory (if applicable) or Linking Statement
• Discussion of Literature by Themes
• Hypotheses (if any)
• Research Paradigm/Research Simulacrum
• Methods
• Participants/Subjects/Respondents
• Specific Method and Research Design (If applicable)
• Instruments and Procedures
• Data Analysis
• Instrument(Questionnaire, Attitudinaire, etc.)
• Reference
• Appendices
• Literature Matrix
• Variable Matrix
• Synthesis Tally
• Data Collection Forms
 2

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PARTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

• The background of the study consists of 3-5 paragraphs only to capture the
background information on the topic in order to set the larger context of the study. It
is here where the discussion of relevant literature mostly figures in.
• For a guide, the following can be answered; what is known (and not yet known)
about this subject? What do the experts say? What are the controversies? The
gray areas?
• This section should not just enumerate and describe studies done but, rather,
critically engage them.
• It assesses both their contributions and limitations and, in so doing, clears the
space for the proposed study.
• In the end, the discussion of the background of the study should logically lead to
the Statement of the Problem

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• The problem is borne out of an assessment that something is wrong, amiss, or
imperfect in the current state of knowledge ( e.g. gap in the literature, conflicting
claims, inadequate results or findings, etc or practice ( e.g. program that falls short
of its goals, a system that can be further improved, etc.). the problem usually
comes as a single statement but is followed by paragraphs elaborating on this.
• Having identified the problem, state clearly what you want to accomplish in order to
address, answer or illuminate the problem. What do you intend to do and how is
this going to contribute towards the resolution of the problem? In other words this is
the purpose of your study.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

• This section describes the contribution of the research to the discovery of
knowledge. It discusses the following:
• benefits derived from the investigation
• worthwhile contribution to the generation of new knowledge
• general relevance of the study to the readers
• Show how this will respond to the gap of knowledge, issues of theory or method,
and social action or policy making.
• For applied researches, you may have to specify who might be interested in the
results/findings of the study. Be very specific. Show exactly how these
results/findings can be utilized by these interest groups.

LITERATURE REVIEW

• Underpinning Theory (If Applicable) Or Linking Statement

• Describe in more details the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of your

study. Discuss the theories, methodological approaches and variables that are
important in your study and demonstrate their interrelations as such. Such
interrelations may be illustrated through a diagram, although such diagrams are
rarely included in the final manuscript.
 3

• In writing the theoretical framework, start by stating the theory, concept model or
principle. Then explain what the theory is all about. End up by contextualizing the
theory by relating it to your present study (comes from the researcher).
• Ways of presenting the theoretical framework:
• This paper is anchored on the theory of ________”
• The theory of ______underpins this study.
• Theoretically, this study is anchored on…“
• The theoretical anchorage of this paper is ….”
• The theoretical framework could come first before the related literature or
after the related literature.

• Discussion of Literature by Themes

Literature should be arranged according to the variables under study.

Example 1:

Research Title: “Cognitive, Affective, Personality and Demographic Predictors of

Foreign Language Achievement”

Subheading 1 : Cognitive Variables,

Subheading 2: Affective variables.
Subheading 3: Personality variables
Subheading 4: Demographic variables

Example 2

Research Title : Family Involvement in Pre-Service Education

Sub-Heading 1: Family Involvement: Importance and Benefits
Sub-Heading 2: Family Involvement: Availability
Sub-Heading 3: Family Ethnicity
Sub-Heading 4: Parents/Guardians’ Educational Attainment
Sub-Heading 5: Beliefs and Attitudes toward Family Involvement
Sub-Heading 6: Pre-service Experience

• Hypotheses (if any)

The hypotheses are written right after the literature review. It is stated in an
alternative form.

• Research Paradigm/Research Simulacrum

This represents what variables or conceptual tags investigated in the study. It

could be presented in graphical (traditionally called paradigm) or narrative form
(especially for qualitative studies) These are supported by hypotheses (quantitative
studies) or propositions (qualitative studies) .
 4

METHODS

• Participants/Subjects/Respondents
Describe your sample with sufficient detail so that it is clear what population the
sample represents. A discussion of how sample was formed is needed for
replicability and understanding of your study.

• Specific Method and Research Design (If applicable)

The design of the study, whether it is a case study, a survey, a controlled experiment,
a meta-analysis or some other type of research, is described in this section.

• Instruments and Procedures

A descriptions of your instruments , including all surveys, tests, questionnaires,
interview forms and other tools used to provide data, should appear in the materials
subsection. Evidence of reliability and validity should be presented.

• Data Analysis
Present statistical tools employed in the study and treatment and analysis of data.
 5

C. PARTS OF A FULL PAPER

• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Background of the Study
• Statement of the Problem and Research Questions
• Significance of the Studies
• Literature Review
• Underpinning Theory (if applicable) or Linking Statement
• Discussion of Literature by Themes
• Hypotheses (if any)
• Research Paradigm
• Methods
• Specific Method and Research Design (If applicable)
• Participants/Subjects/Respondents
• Instruments and Procedures
• Data Analysis
• Instrument(Questionnaire, Attitudinaire, etc.)
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Recommendation
• Reference
• Appendices
• Literature Matrix
• Variable Matrix
• Synthesis Tally
• Data Collection Forms
• Data Matrix
• General tables
• Other supporting materials
 6

D. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PARTS OF A FULL PAPER FORMAT

TITLE PAGE

• The header includes the first two or three words of title positioned at top right, ½”
down. Skip five spaces, then insert the page number.
• The running head is flush left, with the abbreviated title all capitals and no more
than 50 characters including punctuation and spaces. The running head appears
only on the title page.
• Center the title of your paper (approximately 10-12 words and placed in the upper
half of the page), your name, and the name of your institution. Use uppercase
and lowercase letters, capitalizing all words of four letters or more, and double-
space between lines
• The title of a research work contains the main concepts of the study. It should validly
capture the main problem of the study but it should not claim more for the study than
it actually delivers.

ABSTRACT

• An abstract should reveal in concise terms what you studied and why, how you went
about it, what you found, and the relevance of those findings. "Type the abstract
itself as a single paragraph without paragraph indentation (APA, 2009, p. 27). The
maximum length should be 200-250 words. Keywords follow the abstract.

KEYWORDS

• Identify words/phrases which are central to the work but are not reflected in the title
(other journals allow the use o same words or phrases in the keywords)
• The field/s where your article may be situated (e.g. patient care, cancer, religious
studies, student achievement, indigenous education)
• Not more than ten words/phrases

INTRODUCTION

• Start the introduction with a paragraph or two presenting the investigated problem,
the importance of the study and an overview of your research strategy.
• The introductory paragraph is usually followed by a review of related literature. Show
how your research builds on prior knowledge by presenting and evaluating what is
already known about your research problem.
• The main goal in the introduction is to provide a review of the relevant psychological
literature, providing definitions and past research findings that inform the reader on
your topic. Your goal is for the reader to understand the need for more research in
the area (i.e., your proposed study), and to be able to clearly see the reasoning for
your hypotheses. You should organize this section of your paper in such a way that
you logically build to your study. You aren't just citing research, you are crafting a
line of reasoning which leads to your research question. Avoid simply summarizing
each of the different studies you read in a “list” type format. Remember this is a
paper and you need to present information in a coherent way that moves from the
broad to the specific, and in a way that leads the reader to the gap in the literature
 7

you’ve noticed. You can accomplish this goal in many ways (look through multiple
published articles for ideas).
• In the last paragraph of your introduction, state your research problem or statement
of the problem. Statement of the problem consists of variables you intend to study
and generally what you will be asking your participants to do (e.g. “…we plan to
administer a survey measuring both variables X and Y to determine if there is a
correlation.”). Statement of the problem and objectives of the study have the same
characteristics but they differ in form because the former is stated in interrogative or
question form and the latter, in declarative form. These statements of the problem or
objectives of the study should be stated in researchable terms, that is, through
appropriate data gathering and statistical analyses, answers to them could be
obtained.

METHODS

• The method section includes separate descriptions of the samples, the materials
and the procedures . These are subtitles and may be augmented by further sections
if needed.
• Describe your sample with sufficient detail so that it is clear what population the
sample represents . A discussion of how sample was formed is needed for
replicability and understanding of your study.
• A descriptions of your instruments, including all surveys, tests, questionnaires,
interview forms and other tools used to provide data, should appear in the materials
subsection. Evidence of reliability and validity should be presented. The design of
the study, whether it is a case study, a survey, a controlled experiment, a meta-
analysis or some other type of research, is conveyed through the procedures
subsection. It is here that the activities of the researcher are described , such as
what was said to the participants, how groups were formed, what control
mechanisms were employed etc. The description is sufficient if enough details is
present for the reader to replicate the essential elements of the study. It is important
for the procedures to conform to ethical criteria for researchers.

RESULTS

• The results section is where you tell the reader several things about your data and
data analysis. First, provide basic descriptive information about the scales you used
(report the mean and standard deviation for each scale). If you have more than 3 or
4 variables in your paper, you might want to put this descriptive information in a
table to keep the text from being too choppy and bogged down (see the APA
manual for ideas on creating good tables). Most central to the Results section, you
tell the reader what statistics you conducted to test your hypothesis (-ses) and what
the results indicated.
• Include the following in your results section: (in-order)
• Give the descriptive statistics for the relevant variables (mean, standard deviation).
The purpose here is to summarize what your data set "looks like" before you
examine your hypothesis. As such, the means, etc. you present in this first
paragraph should be the overall means for the entire sample rather than the means
broken down by condition.
 8

• Provide a brief rephrasing of your hypothesis (es) (avoid exact restatement). Then
tell the reader what statistical test you used to test your hypothesis and what you
found.
• Explain which findings were in the predicted direction, and which were not (if any).
Were differences statistically significant (i.e., p =.05 or below)? Don't merely give
the statistical numbers without a supporting sentence. You also cannot use
statistics as though they were parts of speech (i.e., nouns). For example do not
write “The correlation between private self-consciousness and college adjustment
was r(60) = - .26, p = .01.” Instead, translate important data into words and provide
the statistics as evidence for your reported results. For example, “The negative
correlation between private self-consciousness and college adjustment indicated
that increased self-consciousness, predicted poor adjustment, r(60) = - .26, p = .01.”
• However, don't try to interpret why you got the results. Leave that to the Discussion
section
• Note that for t-test and ANOVA findings, the "result" consists of the following in the
following order: (1) the t (or F) and the p value; and, if significant, (2) the means. In
other words, keep the means together with the related significance tests. In
addition, for two or three way ANOVA results, you should first report on any main
effects (including indicating non-significant effects) and then report on interactions
(including indicating non-significant interactions).
• Also, you need to report the following information either in the text of your paper or
in a table: statistic (r, t, z, F, etc.), degrees of freedom (if relevant), and the
significance level (p value). APA now asks that you also report effect sizes and
power statistics.
• For example, if you are reporting a single correlation for the whole results section,
report it in the text of the paper as follows:
• r(48) =.26, p = .04 or r = -.11, n.s.
• Note: Use n.s. if not significant; if your result is significant, report the exact p-value.
• If your result was non- significant, but p < .10, it is commonly accepted to still talk
about the results. You might write something like the following text in your paper:
“While the correlation was not significant using the standard alpha level of .05, the p-
value was less than .10.” But, you must provide a rationale for why you should still
be able to discuss this non-significant correlation (e.g, power, effect size issues).
You may cautiously interpret such a correlation. Don’t make grand conclusions or
use strong language based on the existence of a marginally significant finding. Also,
you should indicate that a marginal finding is non-significant in a table; only refer to
the statistic as “approaching significance” in the text of the paper.
• If putting your statistics in the body of your results section seems to make the
section difficult to read (i.e., if you feel the reader is distracted from your results by
too many numbers and statistics), consider putting the statistics in a table. For
example, with simple bivariate correlations, you should create a correlation matrix. If
you include a table, you should, in the text of the result section, refer readers to your
table instead of typing out the statistics for each finding.
• You need to report the actual statistics in some way in your result section, but
regardless of whether you use a table or type the statistics in the text, you should
put sentences describing the results in this section:
 9

• E.g. “As expected, college adjustment was positively correlated with the
amount of contact with friends and family members (see Table 1).”
• E.g. “No significant relationship was found between the importance of
one's social life and social adjustment to college, r = -.11, n.s.
• E.g. “As shown in Table 1, some of my predictions were supported.
There was a significant correlation between extroversion and life
satisfaction. However, life satisfaction was not significantly related to
college adjustment.”
• It is helpful to write the words of the results section first, and then go back to insert
the numbers and statistical information. Really - write the words only first. Then go
back and add numbers.
DISCUSSION
• In your discussion section, relate the results back to your initial hypotheses. Do they
support or disconfirm them? Remember: Results do not prove hypotheses right or
wrong; they support them or fail to provide support for them.
• Include the following information in the following order:
1. Provide a very brief summary of the most important parts of the introduction and
then the results section. In doing so, you should relate the results to the theories you
introduced in the Introduction. Your findings are just one piece among many -- resist
the tendency to make your results the final story about the phenomenon or theory of
interest. Integrate the results and try to make sense of the pattern of the findings.
2. In the case of a correlational research , be careful not to use causal language to
discuss your results – unless you did an experiment you cannot infer causality.
However, it would be impossible to fully discuss the implications of your results
without making reference to causality. That is fine. Just don't claim that your results
themselves are demonstrating causality.
3. Talk about any limitations relevant to the interpretation of your findings . All
studies have weaknesses or qualifications.
• If your results did support your hypothesis, the limitations section often includes a
discussion of possible "third variable" explanations, unmeasured mediators, and/or
issues with the generalizability of your results.
• If your results did not support your hypothesis, the section on limitations often
includes discussion of various features of the study which might be responsible
(e.g., operational definitions, self-report biases, unmeasured moderator variables,
the size or composition of the sample). Where possible, support your speculation
with references.
• BE SPECIFIC when discussing limitations. For example, if you claim that a third
variable might affect your correlation, tell the reader what that third variable is and
how it affects the results. If you think that the fact that the use of a convenience
sample (and thus, a non-representative/random sample) is a limitation, you must
explain what segment of the population might respond differently than did the
participants in your sample and why.
• Speculate about future directions the research could take to further investigate your
question. This might relate back to any weaknesses you’ve mentioned above (or
reasons why the results didn’t turn out as expected). Future directions may also
include interesting next steps in the research.
 10

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• The conclusion is a paragraph or set of paragraphs which is a direct answer to the

main problem of the study. In other words, it is the captured answer of the main
problem of the study concisely stated in a paragraph or set of paragraphs.
• Your conclusion should talk briefly about the broader significance of your findings.
What do they imply about human nature or some aspect of it? (Don't wildly
speculate, however!) Leave the reader feeling like this is an important topic… you
will likely refer back to your opening paragraph of the Introduction here and have
partial answers or more specific responses to the questions you posed.
• The researcher offers suggestions based on the findings. No recommendations
should be given that are not derived from the findings. The last recommendation
should include specific studies to be undertaken by other researchers, which builds
on the findings of the present study.

E. REFERENCES

1. Authors & editors. . List up to seven authors to a work; if there are more than seven list
the first six, insert an elipsis, then the last author. Invert all authors' names, using first &
middle initials. With two or more authors place an ampersand> & < before the final
name. Note, unless they are serving in place of authors in a reference, editors' names go
in their normal order (First. M. Last).
2. Character Spacing. Space once after all punctuation except inside abbreviations, ratios,
and URLs where no space is required (APA, 2009, p. 87). Space once after the periods
in references and initials.
3. City, State.. City and state, province, or country are now required for all cities. Write:
Baltimore, MD; New York, NY; Boston, MA; London, England; Paris, France. Use postal
abbreviations for states, provinces.
4. Date. Use the month-day-year format for full dates, but see the sample references for
newspapers.
5. E-mail and other "unrecoverable data" are cited as a personal communication, for
example: (A. B. Carter, personal communication, April 1, 2005). These do not appear in
the reference list.
6. Titles of Works. All titles require sentence caps (all words lowercase except for the first
word, first word after a colon, and proper nouns). Article titles are not placed in quotes in
references (they are when mentioned in the text). Italicize titles of books, reports,
working and conference papers, dissertations, and similar documents.
7. Do not drop digits from (elide) inclusive pages numbers, do not write pp. 1234-38, write
pp. 1234-1238. The volume number in references to periodicals is placed in italics (but
not the issue number, if any).
7. Title notations. A note is added to a reference to help identify a source when it is not a
conventional article or book. This follows the title after any material in parentheses, in
brackets, with the first word capitalized in plain text (APA, 2009, p. 186).
 11

F. APPENDICES

1. Sample of a Literature Matrix

Research Title: Study Habits and Attitudes of Freshmen Students: Implications for Academic
Intervention Programs

Major Delineated Factors/ Method, Major Findings

Authors Objective/s Variables/ Data Gathering Tool,
Central Themes Subjects/Participants
Question/
Main Problem
Awang, M. The purpose of Study orientation The measurement of The finding has shown
and this research is: skills, study habits, study orientation skills is that the study
Sinnadurai to measure: the study attitudes, done by innovating a orientation skills (SOS)
(2010). A study orientation academic website based on a survey website was able to
Study on the skills: and to performance of study habits and measure SOS
Developmen provide remedial attitudes questionnaire effectively among the
t of Strategic tools in correcting (SSHA); respondents in the two
Tools in respondents’ http://portal.ump.edu.my/s groups. There is a
Study study orientation urvey. The students’ study significant difference in
Orientation skills faults. The orientation skills are SOS and academic
Skills research also analyzed and sorted into performance between
towards measures the three groups of pre-test and post test
Achieving relationship achievement; the higher scores of the
Journal of between study achiever, normal achiever respondents. The
Language orientation skills and lower achiever. The results also show that
Teaching and the treatment tools comprise there is a correlation
and academic of the treatment website; between SOS and GPA
Research, performance http://portal.ump.edu.my, scores in pre-test and
Vol. 2, No. 1, among first year a textbook (Study post-test within and
pp. 60-67, students of Orientation Skills in between each group.
Academic University Action, Ghani format of
Excellence Malaysia note-taking, DVD on the
ISSN 1798- PAHANG. study orientation skills and
4769 lecture on study
orientations skills aspects.
The assessment on the
academic performance is
based on grade point
average (GPA) scores of
UMP undergraduates from
their first semester and
second semester results.
The research uses Quasi-
experimental design with a
pre-test and post-test by
comparing both group
samples.
 12

2. Sample of a Variable Matrix

Research Title: Disparity in Knowledge, Perception, Motivation and Attitude on Prenatal Care
among Adolescent and Adult expectant mothers

VARIABLES OR TYPE OF VARIABLE OPERATIONAL BEHAVIOR

CONCEPTUAL TAGS (Independent/Exogenous, DEFINITION OF THE
Mediating/Moderator, OF THE VARIABLES VARIABLES
Dependent/Endogenous)
perception Independent The act or faculty of Positive
apprehending by means of Negative
the senses or of the mind;
cognition; understanding.
Knowledge Independent Expertise, and skills Positive
acquired by a person Negative
through experience or
education; the theoretical
or practical understanding
of a subject.
Attitude Independent A hypothetical construct Positive
that represents an Negative
individual's degree of like
or dislike for an item.
Motivation Independent The driving force which Positive
causes us to achieve Negative
goals. It is an internal state
of being, or an internal
condition that activates
one’s behavior, giving it
direction.
Prenatal care Dependent The medical and nursing Positive
care recommended for
women before and during
pregnancy.

3. Sample of a Synthesis Tally

Example: Information technology (13), behavioral intentions(5), attitude towards IT use (12),
technology adoption model (24), task technology fit (4), technology investment (32), IT
beliefs (4), subjective norm (3), technology training (42), innovation diffusion (32), internet
usage (29), technology plan (35), self-efficacy (7), technology decision- making (42),
technology infrastructure (32), technology support (28)

Data Collection Form

These consist of questionnaire, interview guide, standardized questionnaire, attitudinaire.
 13

4. Sample of A Questionnaire

Research Title: Study Habits and Attitudes of Freshmen Students: Implications for Academic
Intervention Programs

Study Habits Questionnaire

Dear Respondents,
The Unlad Dunong Center is conducting a survey of student’s study habits and attitudes as basis for
developing remediation programs. Please answer completely every item with all sincerity
and honesty. Rest assured that all your answers will be held in strict confidentiality.

Thank you.

Unlad Dunong Office

Name: ______________________________ Gender: [ ] Male [ ] Female

Department: ________________________ Course: __________________________

Parental Involvement
1. Are you living with your parents? [ ] Yes [ ] No
If YES, proceed to item No. 3.
2. If No, which of the following is true? (Please check.)
__ Staying with relatives in town
__ Boarding
__ Others (Please Specify) _____________________________
3. How often do your parents monitor you in your studies?
__ once a week
__ twice a week
__ thrice a week
__ daily
__ none at all
4. Are your parents involved in your learning? [ ] Yes [ ] No
5. If YES, in what way? (Check all that apply.)
[ ] monitors me in my homework assignments
[ ] supports or tutors me in doing my homework assignments
[ ] helps me in organizing my study plan
[ ] monitors my progress through regular home-school communication

Extracurricular Activities
1. What extracurricular activities are you involved in this year? (Check all that apply.)
[ ] student organization
[ ] athletic sports
[ ] cultural and art shows (e.g. music, dance, plays, etc.)
[ ] inter and intra-school competitions
[ ] community service
[ ] working
[ ] computer games
[ ] others. Please specify.______________
2. On the average, how often do you go or hang out with friends?
 14

a. Daily during my vacant hours

b. During weekdays after classes
c. During weekends

Study Pattern
1. Do you have a study plan (a definite schedule to study your lesson)?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
2. If Yes, how religious are you in following your study plan?
[ ] Always [ ] Often [ ] Sometimes
3. Most often, how do you study?
[ ] Alone [ ] With a classmate/friend [ ] With Group

Directions:
Read the statements carefully and rate yourself in accordance to what you actually do or
feel and not what you think you should do or feel. Mark your answers on the answer sheet
provided. Please do not omit any of the statements.

Use the legend below to determine your answers:

R- Rarely (0 to 15 percent of the time)

S- Sometimes (16 to 35 percent of the time)
F- Frequently (36 to 65 percent of the time)
G-Generally (66 to 85 percent of the time)
A-Almost Always (86 to 100 percent of the time)

Items Almost Generally Frequently Sometimes Rarely

Always
1. When my assignment is extra long or
difficult, I either quit or study only the
easier parts of the lesson.
2. In preparing reports, term papers, case
studies, etc., I make certain that I clearly
understand what is required before I begin
work.

3. I feel that teachers lack understanding of

the needs and interests of students.

4. My dislike for teachers causes me to

neglect my school work.

5. When I get behind in my school work for

some unavoidable reason, I make initiative
to study my missed lessons.

6. Difficulty in expressing myself in writing

slows me down on reports, examinations
 15

Items Almost Generally Frequently Sometimes Rarely

Always
and other academic requirements.

7. My teachers succeed in making their

subjects interesting and meaningful to me.

8. I feel that I would study harder if I were

given more freedom to choose subjects
that I like.

9. Daydreaming about dates, future plans,

etc., distracts my attention from my lesson
while I am studying.

10. My teachers criticize my written reports

as being hastily written or poorly
organized.

11. I feel that when teachers give grades,

they are influenced by their personal like or
dislike of the students.

12.Even though I don’t like a subject, I still

work hard to make a good grade.

13.Even though an assignment is dull and

boring, I stick to it until it is completed.

14.I give special attention to neatness on

reports, assignments and other work to be
turned in.

15. I believe that the easiest way to get

good grades is to agree with everything
your teachers say.

• Data Matrix
These are the raw data directly taken from the data collection forms that are readily
manipulated for data analysis. It also includes the data output generated from the
software or ready reference.
 16

5. Sample of a data matrix

Research Title: The Effect of Workplace Stressors and Coping Strategies in the Job
Satisfaction and Health Status among Filipino Nurses

Perceive Occurrence of Workplace Stressor

Item Item Item Item Item Item Item Item Item Item Item Item Item
Res. Dep’t 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
1 Psyche 4 4 3 3 4 4 5 2 3 3 3 2 4
2 Psyche 5 4 3 3 5 3 5 4 3 3 4 5 3
3 Psyche 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 2 3
4 Psyche 5 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 4 3 2 3 3
5 Pedia 4 4 2 2 2 5 4 3 4 1 2 2 3
6 Pedia 4 3 3 2 4 4 3 5 4 3 3 2 3
7 Pedia 4 3 3 2 4 4 3 5 4 3 3 2 3
8 Surgery 3 2 4 2 4 4 2 3 5 4 3 2 3
9 Surgery 4 4 3 3 2 5 4 3 3 4 5 4 4
10 Surgery 4 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 4 4 5 5 4
11 OB 5 3 3 4 4 3 5 3 4 5 4 4 4
12 OB 4 3 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 3 3 3 3
13 OB 4 4 3 2 3 3 1 1 1 2 4 4 3
14 OPD 4 3 3 4 3 4 3 4 4 4 3 2 3
15 OPD 4 3 2 3 3 3 3 4 3 2 4 3 2
1 Pedia 3 1 4 3 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 4
2 Pedia 3 2 3 2 5 4 1 4 2 5 3 3 4
3 Pedia 4 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 3
4 Pedia 4 2 3 3 2 2 3 2 1 2 3 4 3
5 General 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 3 2 3 2 3
6 General 4 4 5 4 3 4 4 3 3 3 3 4 4
7 General 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 4 5 5 5 5
8 General 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 4 3 3 3
9 Pay 3 2 3 2 4 5 4 2 4 3 4 2 4
10 Pay 4 3 3 2 4 3 2 4 4 3 3 3 3
11 Pay 3 2 1 1 1 5 3 3 4 3 3 3 3
12 Pay 5 2 5 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 3 5 4
13 ER 4 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 4 2 3 2 2
14 ER 3 4 3 2 2 2 3 1 5 3 3 3 3
15 ER 5 4 5 4 4 5 3 3 3 2 4 2 3

General tables
General tables are specific tables which describe the item per item analysis which
were manipulated to come up with tables that were discussed in the result.
 17

6. Sample of a general table

Research Title: The Effect of Workplace Stressors and Coping Strategies in the Job
Satisfaction and Health Status among Filipino Nurses

Table 3. Intercor relation of Stressor in the workplace, job satisfaction and

health status

Variables Mean Median Descriptive Value Pearson r

Workplace >39 High occurrence of
Stressor 42.23 39 stress .364*
<39 Low occurrence of
stress
>90 Higher Job
Job 120.73 90 Satisfaction
Satisfaction <90 Lower Job
Satisfaction
Workplace >39 High occurrence of
Stressor 42.23 39 stress .128
<39 Low occurrence of
stress
>15 Better Health Status
Health Status 18.33 15 <15 Poor Health Status
• Significant @ .05

• Other supporting materials

These consist of tables that strongly support the general tables shown in the result of the
study.

Table 1: Knowledge on prenatal care between adult expectant mothers and the adolescent
mothers
Knowledge Adult Expectant Mothers Adolescent Expectant mothers
Freq Percent Freq Percent
6 4 16 3 12
7 3 12 7 28
8 13 52 13 52
9 4 16 2 8
10 1 4 0 0
Total 25 100 25 100

Table 2: Perception on Prenatal Care between adult expectant mothers and the adolescent
mothers
Perception Adult Expectant Adolescent Expectant
Mothers mothers
Weighted Descripti Weighted Descriptive
 18

mean ve Value mean Value

1. Prenatal care is important and 4.88 Strongly 4.68 Strongly
should be initiated early Agree Agree
2. Prenatal care is available and 4.28 Agree 4.24 Agree
accessible to all pregnant mothers
regardless o status
3. Prenatal care is needed only if a 3.68 Agree 3.52 Agree
pregnant woman feels it
4. Pregnancy is a normal event not 2.8 Disagree 2.88 Disagree
needing medical supervision
5. Prenatal care is avoidable as long 2.4 Disagree 2.56 Disagree
as you maintain a healthy lifestyle
Overall Weighted Mean 3.61 Agree 3.58 Agree

G. (A sample of a quantitative research from Master of Nursing students’ research,

2010)

DISPARITY IN KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION, MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDE ON

PRENATAL CARE AMONG ADOLESCENT
AND ADULT EXPECTANT MOTHERS

Anthony P. Olalia Jr., Donnalisa A. Tuliao, Lyndon P. Duarte and John Paul C. Balisi

Parts Specifics
Abstract The study aims to determine the disparity in Knowledge,
perception, motivation, and attitude of adult and adolescent
expectant mothers towards prenatal care. The data utilized was
taken from the survey conducted by the researchers at the City
Health Office of Tuguegarao, Cagayan 3500. The study showed a
difference in attitude between the 2 groups of respondents with
the adult expectant mothers having a more positive attitude
towards prenatal care. The disparity in attitude was linked to the
differences of motivators but not on the degree of motivation
received by the expectant mothers.

Keywords Prenatal care ,Perception ,Knowledge,Attitude, ,Motivation

Introduction According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

Philippines, 160 Filipino women die for every 100,000 births. Among the
leading direct causes of maternal deaths in the country are: post-partum
hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, abortion-related
complications and obstructed labor (Tulali, C. 2010). The maternal
mortality rate is intimately linked to the quality of the health system's
prenatal and delivery services.
The State of the World’s Children 2009 report of the UNICEF,
articulated that the Philippines is among 68 countries, which contributed
 19

Parts Specifics
to 97 percent of maternal, neonatal, and child health deaths worldwide.
Statistics also show that almost half of the deaths of Filipino children
under five years old are within the first 28 days of life which suggest a
lack of concern to maternal health during the prenatal period (Tulali, C.
2010). Complications in childbirth are attributed to hemorrhage, sepsis,
hypertension and abortive outcomes, which are actually preventable.

Background of Based from the article “Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies,” prenatal
the Study care is the most important thing a woman should do during her
pregnancy (Padilla, L. 2010). Therefore, In an attempt to curb the rising
tide of neonatal and pregnancy death due to noncompliance to prenatal
care of many women in our nation, the study have been shaped by the
researchers to determine the behavior towards prenatal care of
expectant mothers, both adolescent and adult. Afterall, pregnant adults
do not mirror the obstetric status of all pregnant mothers so as pregnant
adolescents do not speak to all pregnancy status. They have differences
which makes them more or less compliant with prenatal services.
According to Philippines today, 16.5 million Filipinos belong to the
15-24 year old age where 30% of all births belong to this age group that
by the age of 20, 25% of the youth are already mothers. The National
Statistics Office supports this figure by indicating that at national level,
approximately 2 % of all women aged 15-19 were reported to be
currently pregnant with their first child. Along with this statistics is an
account of the reality that the country’s health system on prenatal and
delivery services overlooks the differences in prenatal care requirement
among adolescent and adult expectant mothers disregarding the fact that
aside from disparity in behavior, young women are the most vulnerable
populations in terms of physical and psychological complications
associated with pregnancy; hence, they require a different approach to
encourage prenatal compliance.
According to Rebecca Singson of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
(2008), Teenage mothers are less likely to seek regular prenatal care
which is essential for monitoring the growth of the fetus. In addition
teenage pregnancy is closely associated with a greater risk for
malnutrition, abortion, fetal deaths and the acquisition of cervical cancer
because of obvious non-adherence to prenatal care. As to why
adolescent expectant mothers seemed less compliant is not clearly
known but much has to do with their behavior towards the pregnancy.
Many extensive studies have been made but little showed factors
affecting the differences between the compliance of prenatal care to both
adolescent and adult expectant mothers. With the existing gaps in
literatures, the researchers therefore decided to conduct a study
regarding this aspect with emphasis on the disparity between the
behaviors of adult and adolescent expectant mothers which is credited
significantly on their present knowledge, attitude, motivation, and
perception about prenatal care.
 20

Parts Specifics
Research This study aims to answer the following questions:
Questions 1. Who among the two groups of expectant mothers (adolescent and
adult) are more compliant in terms of prenatal care attendance? What
makes one more compliant?

2. Do the two groups of expectant mothers have differences in

knowledge, attitude, motivation and perception regarding prenatal
care?

3. What are the different motivators for prenatal compliance in adult and
adolescent expectant mothers?

4. How motivated are the 2 groups of expectant mothers to go for

prenatal checkups?

Significance of Prenatal care is the most important thing a woman should do during
the Study her pregnancy. The aim of good prenatal care is to detect any potential
problems early, to prevent them if possible, and to direct the woman to
appropriate specialists, hospitals if necessary. The availability of routine
prenatal care has played a part in reducing maternal death rates
and miscarriages as well as birth defects, low birth weight, and other
preventable infant problems. Although prenatal care is made available to
all women of reproductive age and capacity, many of these women know
nothing of their reproductive rights. In some cases, pregnant women
disregard the importance of prenatal care for some reasons.
Hence, the purpose and importance of this study will look into such
factors that make a difference in the observance of prenatal care among
adolescent and adult expectant mothers. In doing so, significant
information on the hindering and facilitating factors to prenatal care
compliance will be elicited and consequently bridge the gap in terms of
prenatal care success between these two groups of expectant mothers.
This study seeks the necessity of improved prenatal care compliance
which would make a significant contribution to the welfare of the woman,
the mother, the baby, the family and to the community.

Review Of The purpose of this study was to develop a conceptual model that
Related describes the differences adolescent and adult expectant mothers have
Literature in terms of knowledge, motivation, attitude, and perception towards
prenatal care compliance. This section takes account of the theory of
reasoned action and planned behavior which explains the framework of
the research. This chapter generally presents the review of related
research of the components of the conceptual model that highlights the
disparity of behavior between adolescent and adult expectant mothers
towards observance of prenatal care. Included are the relevance of
prenatal care in the achievement of a successful labor and delivery
experience. An account of the status of prenatal care in the Philippines is
also conferred. Predominantly, the literature about the relationship of
prenatal care adherence with that of an expectant-mother’s respective
knowledge, motivation, attitude, and perception on prenatal care are
 21

Parts Specifics
discussed individually in this chapter.
Underpinning Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behavior
Theory
The theory of reasoned action states that individual performance of a
given behavior is primarily determined by a person's intention to perform
that behavior. This intention is determined by two major factors: the
person's attitude toward the behavior and the influence of the person's
social environment or subjective norm. The theory of planned behavior
adds to the theory of reasoned action the concept of perceived control
over the opportunities, resources, and skills necessary to perform a
behavior. The concept of perceived behavioral control is similar to the
concept of self-efficacy -- person's perception of his or her ability to
perform the behavior. Perceived behavioral control over opportunities,
resources, and skills necessary to perform a behavior is believed to be a
critical aspect of behavior change processes.
Discussion of Knowledge and Perception
Literature by
Themes In a study entitled “Factors affecting perception of pregnancy risk in the
adolescent” Perception of pregnancy risk, fertility knowledge, and
probability-based teaching examples of risk were assessed in 104
primiparous urban adolescents 13–18 years of age in their second and
third trimester of pregnancy. Perception of risk was not associated with
age, actual frequency of intercourse, or level of fertility knowledge.
Sexually active adolescents were surprised at subsequent conceptions.
Adolescents were unable to utilize concepts of risk taking, even after
concrete examples and teaching techniques had been presented We
Hypothesis 1 hypothesized that adolescent expectant mothers perceive prenatal care
compliance differently with that of adult expectant mothers.

Meanwhile, certified childbirth educators have the ideal

preparation for prenatal education, but they likely need to enhance their
approach for adolescent clients. First, young mothers in the United
States are presenting with increasingly diverse backgrounds, requiring
cultural awareness of childbirth educators and others who wish to
effectively meet their prenatal health care and education needs. In
addition, adolescents who become pregnant are an extremely vulnerable
group and, therefore, require special concern. Pregnant adolescents are
unique from other groups of pregnant women in all major aspects of
assessment: their social environment; their personal, social, and
psychological development; and their physical response. Therefore,
prenatal care and childbirth education designed for the typical population
are unlikely to best serve the pregnant adolescent (Tilghman J, Lovette
A. 2008).
Adolescents are more influenced by outside factors such as peer
pressure and social status than by their older sisters and mothers.
Knowledge about the adolescent developmental stage is important in
understanding adolescents' responses to prenatal education and care.
Adolescents' perception about prenatal care could be based upon the
 22

Parts Specifics
influence of peers or parents, which may have an effect on their
perception of its relevance, importance, or need. Prenatal educators who
identify this perception may find that working with the adolescent's peers
(especially other pregnant adolescents) and with parents is an effective
Hypothesis 2 way to build a support network for these young clients. Thus, we
hypothesized that adolescent expectant mothers have different degree of
knowledge regarding prenatal health compared to adult expectant mother
One way to work toward the best practices in childbirth education
for adolescents is to ask them what they would like to know and to learn
directly from them what their values are. Cox et al. (2005) implemented a
qualitative study with focus groups of six pregnant adolescents and 10
parenting adolescents, ages 16–21 years old, of African American,
Latina, and Haitian descent. The researchers collected data over a 6-
month period. The teens receiving prenatal care stated they desired
comprehensive health care (i.e., care for themselves and their children)
in one setting. They also felt most cared for and comfortable if they saw
the same provider at each visit. Among the prenatal teens, basic
reproductive information, including fetal development and prenatal
medical health, was especially important. Department of Health (DOH)
data show that poor and uneducated women who are living in rural areas
or in urban poor communities have a high risk for neonatal and maternal
death.
Daniels, Noe, and Mayberry (2006) conducted a qualitative study
to identify attitudinal and psychosocial determinants of early prenatal
care among African American adolescents who were of low
socioeconomic status, aged 16–36 years old, and were attending or had
attended local clinics for prenatal care within the past 2 years. The
researchers found that early initiators of prenatal care possessed
“positive attitudes towards pregnancy, were knowledgeable about
pregnancy signs and symptoms and thought prenatal care was
important” (p. 192), while late initiators perceived clinical staff to be
“insensitive” (p.192). Using the term insensitivity is a way to describe
care that is not culturally competent.
Childbirth educators can play a primary role in promoting,
advocating for, and providing care to two especially vulnerable and
needy groups today: pregnant adolescents and, in turn, their infants.
Certified childbirth educators who decide to focus on serving pregnant
adolescents need to ensure they have assessed the culture of their
adolescent population, maintained current knowledge of the unique
health risks of pregnancy in adolescence, and evaluated the adolescent
and her stage of development. In this way, childbirth educators can
provide an extremely valuable and effective service where it is greatly
needed and make a positive difference in the lives of young mothers and
their babies.

Attitude

In a study entitled “Adolescent Girls' Attitudes Toward Pregnancy,”

 23

Parts Specifics
The girls who were ambivalent about pregnancy were not significantly
different from the girls desiring pregnancy. In unadjusted analysis, girls
desiring pregnancy or who were ambivalent about it were more likely to
be Hispanic, unemployed, to not attend school, to live with neither natural
parent, and to have lived away from home for more than 2 weeks. In
adjusted analysis, the reported attitude of the boyfriend toward having a
child was the only significant predictor of adolescent girls' attitude toward
pregnancy (July 2010).
The best predictor of an adolescent girl's attitude toward
pregnancy is her perception of her boyfriends' desire for a baby. Primary
care providers should include boyfriends in any efforts to delay
pregnancy in at-risk adolescent girls. Teenagers who are ambivalent
about whether they want to be pregnant do not differ significantly from
those desiring pregnancy, and should be considered just as high risk
(Cowley C et.al. 2006)
Early adolescent childbearing is associated with a wide range of
adverse consequences and restricted life opportunities for young girls
and the children they bear. Helping adolescents delay early childbearing
has long been a goal of healthcare providers, researchers, and
policymakers. Although the adolescent pregnancy rate in the United
States is decreasing in most groups, it is still disturbingly high,
particularly among Hispanic girls (Cowley C et.al. 2006).
Most efforts to prevent or delay adolescent pregnancy have been
directed at providing birth control, but this intervention is likely to fail if
teens are not interested in preventing pregnancy. Although several
studies have examined the factors and motivations underlying adolescent
contraceptive behavior, teen attitudes toward pregnancy are still poorly
understood. Adolescents may not share the same negative view of their
childbearing as do adults concerned with preventing it. Retrospective
studies suggest that as many as 60% to 80% of teenage pregnancies are
"unintended."Other studies examining pregnant and parenting
adolescents' attitudes toward childbearing suggest that the percentage of
pregnancies that are truly unintended may be lower than commonly
believed.[10,17-19] A significant percentage of never-pregnant
adolescents harbor either highly ambivalent or positive attitudes toward
early childbearing.[19-21] A better understanding of the factors
associated with a desire for pregnancy among adolescents may help
health care providers better predict the most at-risk adolescents.
Therefore, we hypothesized that adolescent expectant mothers and adult
Hypothesis 3 expectant mothers have a disparity in terms of attitude towards prenatal
care compliance.

Motivation
In a journal entitled “Pregnant teenagers' reasons for seeking or
delaying prenatal care,” it says that The informants' self-reported reasons
for seeking early prenatal care included feeling ill, being worried about
themselves, wanting a pregnancy test, and the teen's mother insisting
that she begin prenatal care. Reasons for delaying care included not
 24

Parts Specifics
recognizing pregnancy symptoms, denying being pregnant, fear of
parents' response to the pregnancy, and lack of financial resources. The
findings suggest that pregnant adolescents who sought early prenatal
care had adequate family support and a stronger knowledge base about
pregnancy than those who delayed care. Nurses and other health care
personnel in clinical practice should provide information about the
symptoms and signs of pregnancy and about the importance of initiating
early prenatal care, in all encounters with preadolescent and adolescent
girls and their mothers, to increase the likelihood that teens will seek
early prenatal care if they become pregnant (1995).
In order to achieve compliance one must first gain insight of the matter at
hand added with the right motivation, attitude and perception. Adherence
to prenatal care is more apt if the person concerned is given information
of its importance and the likely consequences when disregarded.
Meanwhile, the attitude of the concerned party must also be investigated
because it affects how well the person is motivated to perform such role.
Thus, we hypothesized that adolescent expectant mothers and adult
Hypothesis 4
expectant mothers differ in terms of motivators and the degree of
motivation about prenatal care compliance.

Research
Paradigm PRENATAL CARE

TYPE OF EXPECTANT
MHER  KNOWLEDGE

 PERCEPTION
 ADULT

 MOTIVATION
 ADOLESCENT
 ATTITUDE

Methods

Research This study uses the results of the survey questionnaires made by
Design the researchers, which measures the differences in knowledge,
perception, motivation and attitude of adult and adolescent expectant
mothers towards prenatal care. The research thus involved the floating of
the said questionnaire to expectant mothers who goes for prenatal
checkup at the Tuguegarao City Health Office located at Barangay San
 25

Parts Specifics
Gabriel.

Criteria of the a. Criteria for the selection of population sample

selection of
respondents Adult: 20 – 40 Years of Age
AGE Adolescent:15 – 19 Years of
Age
NUMBER OF PREVIOUS
None
PREGNANCIES
LOCATION OF HOUSEHOLD Within Tuguegarao City

Respondents The 25 adult and 25 adolescent expectant mothers who satisfy

of the Study the above qualification are selected to be representative of Adult and
adolescent expectant mothers of the City of Tuguegarao.

Sampling Purposive Sampling was utilized in which a criterion was utilized

Procedure in the selection of 2 sample population from the general population of
Expectant mothers who goes for check up at the City Health Office of
Tuguegarao. The study covered 50 respondents of which 25 are within
the age range of 20-40 categorized as adult expectant mother. 25 are
within the age range of 15-19 categorized as adolescent expectant
mother.

Data Analysis T-test for independent sample was employed to determine the
significant differences of the knowledge, perception, motivation and
attitude between adult expectant mothers and adolescent expectant
mothers.

Results The following tables show the most relevant data which are
derived from the survey conducted by the researchers which elaborates
the respondents, Knowledge, Perception, Motivation and attitude towards
prenatal care.
TABLE 1. Significant differences of the knowledge, perception,
motivation, and attitude between adult expectant mothers and adolescent
expectant mothers.
Variables GROUP N Mean t- Sig. Decision
value
Knowledge Adult 25 7.8000 .905 .370 Accept
Adolescent 25 7.5600 Ho
Perception Adult 25 20.0400 .193 .848 Accept
Adolescent 25 19.8800 Ho
Motivation Adult 25 28.4800 .470 .641 Accept
Adolescent 25 29.1600 Ho
Attitude Adult 25 59.4800 3.325 .002 Reject
Adolescent 25 53.4400 Ho

It is only the attitude towards prenatal care that caused the difference
between adolescent expectant mothers and adult expectant mothers.
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Parts Specifics
Other variables such as knowledge, perception and motivation did not
cause any variation between the two groups of respondents.
Nevertheless, based on the survey although there were no significant
differences in knowledge and perception, the adult expectant mothers
apparently had higher results in the examination and had showed a
slightly more positive perception on prenatal care. The adolescent
expectant mothers on the other hand showed a higher degree of
motivation compared to adult expectant mothers; the difference was not
that significant though.
Discussion In terms of motivation both adult and adolescent expectant
mothers are fairly motivated to comply with their prenatal care check-up.
The difference lies on their motivators. The primary motivators identified
by the respondents are the Husband / Partner for adult expectant
mothers and the Baby for adolescent expectant mothers. On one hand,
the least significant motivators for adult and adolescent expectant
mothers are the Health Care Provider and the family, respectively.
A substantial number of studies with various populations report
that social support exerts a positive impact on a pregnant woman’s
psychological well-being, as well as on the health of her newborn
(Carmichael et al., 2003; Dunkel-Schetter et al., 2001; Feldman et al.,
2000). However, as shown in the table above, in the case of adolescent
expectant mothers the primary motivators identified do not necessarily
come from social support systems. In fact, the adolescent expectant
mothers identified family, health care providers and friends as the least
factor that encourages them to comply with their prenatal care
responsibility; while, the baby, herself and her health which relies
independently on the mother are the top three motivators. Lacking social
supports from friends and family means that the motivation should come
from the person herself.
Studies stated that some teenage parents are lucky enough to
have the support of their family, but this isn’t always the case. For some,
judgement from their parents or family members means that they go
through this difficult time with little, if any, support. While older parents
get to celebrate their pregnancy and the birth of a child, many teenage
parents miss out on the celebration because they are busy ‘dealing with
it’ or making the most of their ‘mistake.’ In addition, teenage years are a
time of socialising and building friendships, but the responsibility of
bearing a child means many teenage parents lose all social contact with
their peers. While friends may visit in the short term, the inability to just
drop everything and go means that friendships change. Many pregnant
teens feel like they no longer fit in with their peers.
Adolescents are more influenced by outside factors such as peer
pressure and social status than by their older sisters and mothers.
Knowledge about the adolescent developmental stage is important in
understanding adolescents' responses to prenatal education and care.
Adolescents' perception about prenatal care could be based upon the
influence of peers or parents, which may have an effect on their
perception of its relevance, importance, or need. Prenatal educators who
 27

Parts Specifics
identify this perception may find that working with the adolescent's peers
(especially other pregnant adolescents) and with parents is an effective
way to build a support network for these young clients.
According to the Department of Health (DOH), as many as 17
percent of all unsafe abortions in the country are done on teenage or
young mothers. The reasons identified as to why teens most often
give for having an abortion are; not wanting their lives changed by the
birth of a baby, not being able to afford a baby, and not feeling mature or
responsible enough to raise a child. In addition to this, those who
continue with their pregnancy have seemingly immense concern and
compassion to their unborn child that they look past the difficulties of
having a child at a young age. These expectant mothers then develop a
sense of responsibility over their pregnancy most particularly their
baby/babies, hence; they are motivated to go for prenatal checkups.
Meanwhile, for adult expectant mothers the prime motivator
identified is the partner or husband. This is in relation to the reality that
most of the pregnancies that happen in this age group are planned;
hence, the husband or partner has all out support to the mothers
pregnancy. Having planned the pregnancy also means that the adult
expectant mothers look forward to having a baby, hence it becomes a
great motivation to go for prenatal checkup. As they look forward to
having a child, they also make sure that they maintain healthy well aware
that many complications and possible illnesses may happen which can
be detrimental to the child as well as the baby. (Ezine, A. etal 2010).
In terms of attitude, there is a significant difference in the attitude
of adult and adolescent expectant mothers. The adult expectant mothers
displayed a more positive attitude. Based from the result of the survey on
the expectant mothers’ attitude toward prenatal care, the adult expectant
mothers seemed more compliant in terms of coming to the clinic early,
attending every scheduled prenatal check-up, and following the
physician’s orders. The result of the survey also reveals that the adult
expectant mothers are more health conscious now that they are
pregnant. In fact, they reported that they take their prenatal supplements
faithfully as prescribed by the physician. In addition the adult respondents
also are less worried about the financial cost of prenatal care.
Similarities seen among the respondents may it be adult and
adolescent expectant mothers are; both respondents don’t mind the long
clinic waits. In terms of the prenatal check-up hindering their school/work
schedule and whether they care if the obstetrician is a man both group of
respondents answered sometimes. Both respondents moderately fear
medical procedures as well as the other’s reaction to the pregnancy while
they both agreed that they never feared health providers.
Daniels, Noe, and Mayberry (2006) conducted a qualitative study
to identify attitudinal and psychosocial determinants of early prenatal
care among African American adolescents who were of low
socioeconomic status, aged 16–36 years old, and were attending or had
attended local clinics for prenatal care within the past 2 years. The
 28

Parts Specifics
researchers found that early initiators of prenatal care possessed
“positive attitudes towards pregnancy, were knowledgeable about
pregnancy signs and symptoms and thought prenatal care was
important” (p. 192), while late initiators perceived clinical staff to be
“insensitive” (p.192).
Many researches supported the idea that the best predictor of an
adolescent girl’s attitude toward pregnancy is her perception of her
boyfriends’ desire for a baby. Primary care providers should include
boyfriends in any efforts to delay pregnancy in at-risk adolescent girls.
Teenagers who are ambivalent about whether they want to be pregnant
do not differ significantly from those desiring pregnancy, and should be
considered just as high risk. The research conducted by
Carol Cowley, MSN, NP and Tillman Farley, MD of Brighton and Fort
Lupton, Colorado found out that the strongest predictor of an adolescent
girl’s attitude toward pregnancy was her stated belief about whether her
boyfriend wanted a baby. In light of the powerful influence of the girl’s
perception of her boyfriend’s attitude toward pregnancy, no other factors
are significantly associated with her own attitude toward pregnancy. This
finding suggests that family physicians and other health care providers
working with teenaged girls should include the boyfriend in any
discussions aimed at delaying pregnancy. This explains the seemingly
less positive attitude of the adolescent respondents on prenatal
adherence; they resceive less motivation from social support systems
including their partner’s. the adult however has more favorable amount of
motivation from social support like the family, peers and her partner (see
table 2).
Girls ambivalent about pregnancy are markedly similar to those
desiring it, differing only in the degree to which they believe their partner
want a baby. It may be that some of the ambivalence about pregnancy
arises from a difference of opinion between the girl and her support
systems. Girls ambivalent about pregnancy were least likely to know
others true opinion on the subject. It may be that young girls who are
ambivalent about pregnancy are also those with more limited
interpersonal communication skills, making it difficult for them to discuss
critical reproductive health issues with their families or their partners.
Health care providers may have a role in facilitating improved
communication by specifically addressing family and partner
communication when seeing girls individually, as well as by inviting
members of the family or the partner to be present and more actively
involved in clinic visits. More appropriate and effective interventions may
be those that explore the extent to which her social support attitudes
shape her own critical reproductive health decisions, and encourage
greater dialogue between a girl and her partner with respect to
contraceptive and childbearing decisions.
Childbirth educators can play a primary role in promoting,
advocating for, and providing care to two especially vulnerable and
needy groups today: pregnant adolescents and, in turn, their infants.
Certified childbirth educators who decide to focus on serving pregnant
 29

Parts Specifics
adolescents need to ensure they have assessed the culture of their
adolescent population, maintained current knowledge of the unique
health risks of pregnancy in adolescence, and evaluated the adolescent
and her stage of development. In this way, childbirth educators can
provide an extremely valuable and effective service where it is greatly
needed and make a positive difference in the lives of young mothers and
their babies.

Conclusion & In terms of attending scheduled clinic visits for prenatal care the
Implications adult expectant mothers where more faithful; hence, adherent. Overall,
the adult respondents showed more positive attitude on prenatal care
while they both have almost equal degree of perception, motivation and
perception towards prenatal care compliance.
Much of the difference on the attitude lies on the respondents’
disparity when it comes to motivating factors. As several studies
suggests, a more positive attitude towards prenatal care is significantly
related on encouragements coming from support systems, most
especially that of the partner. This is supported by the result of the survey
which reveals that adolescent expectant mothers rely primarily on their
own as motivation to continue with their pregnancy and their
responsibility to adhere with prenatal care. Social support like the family,
friends and the partner as motivation to comply with prenatal care was
more observed with adult expectant mothers. In this group of expectant
mothers, the husband usually comes along to their clinic visit which is a
great show of support to the pregnancy and the responsibility to prenatal
care.
The result of the research is of significant importance to initiate a
plan for continuing obstetric care that merges adolescent-oriented and
adult oriented prenatal care. Basing from the result of the survey effective
orientation to prenatal care is one that address family and partner
communication particularly to adolescent expectant mothers. Inviting
members of the family or the partner to be present and more actively
involved in clinic visits, is a must to allow for an outlet of positive
perception towards prenatal care particularly to the partner. More
appropriate and effective interventions may be those that explore the
extent to which her social support attitudes shape her own critical
reproductive health decisions, and encourage greater dialogue between
a girl and her partner.

Recommendati The following are recommendations for future researches similar to

ons this one
1. Conduct the survey and interview at the respondent’s home as much
as possible. This is to avoid the rushing of the interview as well as the
answering of the questionnaires. This will also limit the interference to
the respondent’s clinic visits.
2. Translate the questionnaire in a language that is easier for the
respondents to comprehend.
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3. Include data from the respondents OB book. This is to monitor more
closely if the pregnant mother really adhere to the scheduled prenatal
exams as well as the necessary health adjustments during pregnancy.

H. (A sample of a quantitative research from The Journal of Educational Research 94,

No.1 October, 2000)

COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE, PERSONALITY AND DEMOGRAPHIC PREDICTORS OF

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACHIEVEMENT

Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Philip Bailey, Christine E. Daley

Parts Specifics
Abstract The ability of cognitive, affective, personality and demographic variables
to predict second language acquisition among college students was
investigated. An all possible subsets of regression analysis was used to
compare the proportion of variance in foreign language achievement
explained by each variable. The analysis revealed that variables from
each of the 4 domains were important predictors of foreign language
achievement. Overall, academic achievement as measured by GPA
average was the best predictor, explaining 11.5% of the variance in
foreign language achievement. Foreign language anxiety, the next best
predictor, explained 10.5% of the variance. The educational implications
of these findings for understanding foreign language achievement are
discussed along with suggestions for future research.

Keywords cognitive variable, affective variable, personality variable, demographic

variable, foreign language achievement

Introduction Foreign language instructors are accustomed to observing a wide range of

performance in their courses. Whereas, some students excel in learning a
foreign language, many students underachieve, or do not achieve their
desired level of proficiency. In an attempt to understand that phenomenon,
researchers have investigated a multitude of factors that may affect
language learning. Although Ehrman and Oxford (1995) noted that
majority of those studies focused on cognitive variables (e.g. language
aptitude, cognitive ability, study habits), affective (e.g. anxiety, self-
perceptions), personality(e.g. locus of control, individualism, and
demographic (e.g. age, number of previous foreign language studied)
variables also seem to be related to foreign language achievement
(Ehrman & Oxford, 1995; Gardner, Tremblay, & Masgoret, 1997).
Only a few studies have examined the role of cognitive, affective,
personality, and demographic variables concurrently. Gardner et. al
(1997) stated that “ there is a lack of research examining the relationships
among all those variables simultaneously “ (p.344). two studies that
investigated the relationship of several classes of variables to foreign
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Parts Specifics
language achievement are Gardner at al (1997) and Ehrman and Oxford
(1995). Specifically , Gardner et al. (1997) found substantial relationships
between foreign language achievement and non-cognitive variables.
Those authors noted that when foreign language achievement in French
classes is assessed using relatively objective measures that are
administered at the same time as other measures, foreign language
anxiety, self confidence and perceived foreign language ability are most
highly related to achievement. Unfortunately, Gardner et al. tested 34
variables simultaneously with only 102 participants. Because the subject
to variable ratio was only slightly more than 3:1, less than 5:1 minimum
recommendation for multivariate analysis( Thompson, 1990), the
subsequent path coefficient likely were unstable.
Ehrman and Oxford (1995) , whose students comprised a large
sample o adults enrolled in intensive training language courses at te
Foreign Service Institute, reported that cognitive variables exhibited the
strongest correlation with foreign language achievement, followed by the
affective actors, then personality variables. However, because those
authors reported only zero order correlation coefficients, the impact of
each variable was considered in isolation. As such, it is not clear how
each o the variables relates to foreign language achievement in the
presence of other factors. Moreover, no comparisons were made with
respect to the proportion o variance explained in foreign language
achievement. That consideration is potentially important because, as
Pedhazur (1982) noted, “Inspection of zero order correlation is not
sufficient to reveal the potential usefulness of variables when they are
used simultaneously to predict and explain a dependent variable (p.104).
Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine further the
role o various cognitive, affective, personality and demographic variables
in foreign language achievement. That is, we investigated which variable
domain best predict second language acquisition among college students
by comparing the proportion o variance in foreign language achievement
explained by each possible combination of factors. Proportion of variance
explained is the measure of effect size recommended for regression
analyses by research methodologies and statistician (Cohen, 1988) . the
study used the following three cognitive variables: overall academic
achievement (as measured by GPA), study habits, and student’s
expectations of their performance in a foreign language course. In
addition, four affective variables namely , foreign language anxiety,
perceived intellectual ability, perceived scholastic competence and
perceived self-worth were used. The four personality variables comprised
level of cooperativeness, competitiveness, individualism and locus of
control. Finally the following seven demographic factors: gender, age,
semester course load, number of countries visited, number of high school
foreign language courses taken, status of present foreign language course
( i.e. required or elective ) and foreign language proficiency of immediate
family members were considered. Thus, 18 independent variables were
selected to keep the ration o the participants to variables greater than 10to
1( i.e. 184 students to 18 variables) which exceeds the minimum
recommended ratio in multiple regression analyses for obtaining
reasonably stable effect size estimates. (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989).An
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extensive review of the literature revealed that the majority of studies
published in the area o foreign language achievement reported an
inappropriate subject variable ratio.

Literature Cognitive Variables

Review
According to Sparks and Gauschow (1991, 1993a, 1993b), the
acquisition of foreign language is impeded primarily by native language
learning difficulties in mastering the phonological, syntactic, and semantic
codes of language. As such, those authors contend that affective
variables (e.g. anxiety) are not causes of foreign language learning
problem but are side effects o having difficulties coding the native
language (Sparks & Gauschow, 1991, 1995). Sparks and Gauschow first
Theoretical termed that theory the Linguistic Coding Deficit Hypothesis ( , Spark &
Framework Gauschow , 1991, 1993a, 1993b) before renaming it the Linguistic Coding
Differences Hypothesis(LCDH; Sparks and Gauschow 1995). Apparently,
the LCDH is based on the work of Velutino and Scanlon (1986) who found
that poor readers have difficulty processing the formal and structural
characteristics of written and spoken words.
According to Sparks and Gauschow (1995) , support for the LCDH
stems from comparisons of low and high achieving foreign language
learners, which have revealed consistently that the former have
significantly lower levels of native language ability and foreign language
aptitude. Because college students with native language deficits (i.e.
differences) tend to have lower levels of overall academic achievement
tan do their counterparts, one may reasonably assume, to the extent that
the LCDH prevails, students’ overall GPA would be related to foreign
language performance. That is, students with overall GPA would be
related to foreign language performance. That is, students with overall
high academic achievement also tend to have the native language
aptitude that were found by Sparks and Gauschow (1991, 1993a, 1993b,
1995) to predict high levels o foreign language achievement. One would
expect that finding to be true especially at universities like the one in the
current study, where the vast majority of foreign language students are
enrolled to fulfill a Bachelor of Arts degree requirement for majors that
traditionally require stronger verbal skills. Positive relationships between
mathematics proficiency and foreign language achievement and between
reading performance and foreign language achievement have been
reported (Hart, 1993). Yet surprisingly, to date no study appeared to have
used GPA to investigate the relationship between second language
acquisition and academic achievement at the college level.
Research has shown repeatedly that the most successful learners
are those who use learning strategies that tend to be the most optimal for
second language acquisition (Ehrman, 1989;Ehrman and Oxford, 1990;
Oxford, 1989; Oxford and Crookhall, 1989; Skehan, 1989). Because
learning strategy use is a component o study habits, it is likely that the
latter would be related to foreign language achievement. Oxford (1989)
noted that” language learning strategy research has suffered from an
overemphasis on metacognitive and cognitive strategies, which are
admittedly very important, at the expense o other strategy types that are
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Parts Specifics
also very useful”(p.2). hus, the inclusion of study skills in the present
investigation represents an attempt to use a more global measure of
learning strategies to respond to that concern. A positive relationship
between study skills and academic performance has been reported
consistently in the literature. (Al-Hilawani &Sartawi, 1997;Blustein et al,
1986; Jones & Slate, 1992). Moreover, Jones, Slate, Perez and Marini
(1996) concluded on the basis of a series of studies conducted by Jones
and Slate (1992) that study skills account for approximately 15% of the
variance in undergraduate students’ grades. Onwuegbuzie, Slate,
Peterson, Watson, Schwartz (2000) documented that study habits explain
approximately 5% of the variance in achievement in research
Hypothesis 1 methodology courses. We hypothesized that study habits would be related
to foreign language achievement.
Gauschow and Sparks (1991) noted that students’ perceptions of
the ease of learning foreign languages are the foremost indicators of their
propensity to experience foreign language difficulties. According to
Horwitz (1990), students enroll in foreign language classes with pre-
conceived beliefs about how to learn a language, together with
expectations as to their ability to accomplish the task. Apparently those
beliefs and expectations can affect students’ foreign language
performance. Gauschow et. al. (1994) theorized that negative beliefs and
expectations possessed by some students enrolled in foreign language
classes have been acquired because their written and oral language skills
have prevented them from attaining the same levels o academic
achievement as their counterparts who competently use their native
language. Furthermore, the low expectations of many foreign language
students make them unreceptive to language input. thereby, debilitating
the learning process (Krashen, 1980). Students’ expectations of their final
grades also are likely a measure of their confidence in learning foreign
languages, which Clement and his colleagues (Clement, 1980; Clement &
Kruidenier, 1985; Clement, Dornyei, & Noels, 1994) have shown is
related positively to achievement. Onwuegbuzie, Bailey and Daley (1999)
found that students ‘ expectations of their future performance is the best
Hypothesis 2 predictor o their level of language anxiety. Thus, we hypothesized that
students’ expectations of their achievement in foreign language courses
may be related positively to their ultimate performance.

Affective Variables

A myriad of studies have documented that language anxiety is one

of the primary predictors of second language acquisition (Horwitz, Horwitz,
& Cope, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989, 1991a, 1991b). Specifically, a
moderate negative relationship between language anxiety and various
measures of foreign language achievement consistently has been found
(Gardner, Lalonde, Moorcroft, & Evers, 1987; Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993;
Gardner, Moorcroft, & MacIntyre,1987; Gardner, Symthe and
Lalonde,1984; Horwitz, et al,1986; Macintyre & Gardner, 1991c; Mettler,
1987;Philips, 1992;Price, 1991;Trylong, 1987;Young, 1986). Moreover,
Gardner and MacIntyre (1991) found that language anxiety is the best
 34

Parts Specifics
single correlate of achievement. Foreign language anxiety has been
related to performance in oral examinations (Philips, 1992;Scott, 1986), to
production of vocabulary (Gardner, Moorcroft, & MacIntyre, 1987), and to
teachers’ ratings of achievement (Trylong, 1987). Because foreign
language anxiety appears to be one of the best predictors of foreign
language achievement (Gardner, 1985), any model that seeks to predict
foreign language achievement that does not include a measure of foreign
language anxiety likely would be underspecified.
Horwitz et al (1986) contended that perhaps no other field poses
as much of a threat to students’ self concept as does language study.
Clement and his associates
(Clement, Dornyei & Noels, 1994; Clement, Gardner, & Smythe, 1977,
1980; Clement & Kruidenier, 1985) found that self-confidence tend to have
lower motivation to learn a foreign language (Clement, 1980). because
perceptions o self-confidence with respect to foreign language learning
also have been found to be related to foreign language achievement
(Clement et al, 1994), other sefl-perception dimensions may play a role in
foreign language classes. in particular, we hypothesized that perceived
Hypothesis 3 intellectual ability , perceived scholastic competence, and perceived self-
worth may be predictors of foreign language achievement.

Personality Variables

A review of the literature examining personality variables and foreign

language achievement yielded reductive and oversimplified theoretical
frameworks that resulted in meager results (Dunkel, 1947; Kawczynski,
1951). However, even studies that included many potential personality
factors have generated few significant findings. Lalonde and Gardner
(1984), for example, examined 18 personality measures taken from the
Jackson Personality Inventory (Jackson, 1974) and found that the only
significant relationship was a negative one between innovation, a
characteristic of person who value new ideas and achievement. This study
may have suffered from lack of situation-specific focus in some of the
measures , suggesting that Lalonde and Gardner may have been
premature in their conclusion that personality plays no direct role in
foreign language achievement.
Other researchers since Lalonde and Gardner have highlighted
some significant relationships. For example, social interdependence has
been found to play a role in the foreign language learning context.
Specifically, Reid (1987) reported that foreign language students typically
do not report being engaged in cooperative learning activities. Oxford
(1989) contended that the lack of opportunity may stem form the fact that
many foreign language instructors, consciously or unconsciously,
incorporate instructional methodologies that promote competition and
deemphasize cooperation. Limited research (Gunderson & Johnson ,
1980;Jacob & Mattson, 1987;;Sharan et al., 1985) has shown that when
students are taught specifically to be cooperative , their foreign language
skills tend to improve, as do their motivation levels ,altruism, and attitudes
towards peers.
Furthermore, the fact that foreign language may be the subject
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most necessitates continual evaluation by the instructor, as well as regular
and overt peer evaluation because of its emphasis on public speaking,
may often give students the impression that their foreign language
competence is being rated against that of their peers (Horwitz et al, 1986).
Thus, it is likely that level o social interdependence may play a role in
determining the levels of foreign language achievement. Because no prior
research has examined the roles of individualism, competitiveness, and
cooperation within the same study, we investigated their simultaneous
contributions to student performance. Oxford (1990) indicated that the
three components” deserve far greater attention that they have received
from researchers and teachers”(p.44)
Locus of control is considered to be a primary factor in determining
the level of academic achievement among college students (Linder &
Janus,1997), high school students (Sterbin & Rakow, 1996), and even at
risk students (Whilhite, 1990). That phenomenon is defined as a polar
construct in which individuals attribute their successes and failures either
to their own behavior (i.e. internal locus o control) or to external factors
that they cannot control (i.e. external locus o control; Tomlinson, 1987). In
her qualitative analysis of student interviews, Price (1991) found that the
“discrepancy between effort and results” led even some high achieving
students” to feel less in control in language classes than in other courses”
Hypothesis 4 (p. 105). Thus, we hypothesized that locus o control may be a predictor o
foreign language achievement.

Demographic Variables

Oxford ( 1993) reported that gender differences exist with respect to

language learning strategies. Specifically, women tend to use more
conscious strategies. In particular, women are more apt to use strategies
that are metacognitive (i.e. planning, evaluating and organizing); affective
(i.e. emotional and motivational); and social (Oxford, 1993). Women also
have been found t posses better listening skills than men (Larsen-
Freeman & long, 1991); however, few studies at the college level have
compared the foreign language performance of men and women . gender
comparisons conducted on the language development o first language
learners have led to evidence that women have a greater propensity for
native–language learning than do men. Among the explanations provided
to explain the gender differences, the neurolinguistic and socialization
theories appear to be the most popular. Wit respect to the former theory,
some researchers (Kimura, 1987) contended that the advantage that
women have over men regarding native language development results
men’s brains being more laterized than those of women. According to
those theories, the language centers of men are more concentrated in the
left hemisphere, whereas, for women , they are more globally
represented.
Regarding socialization, Chambers, 1995 and Tannen (1991)
posited that the superiority of women over men in language development
stems from their greater motivation and determination to conform to social
structures and norms through language. those authors argued that
women are more socially sensitive in their language use. Chambers
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(1995), who reviewed the literature in that area, concluded that women
tend to use “fewer stigmatized and non-standard variants than do men of
the same social group in the same circumstances” (p.103). Those theories
of native language learning, coupled with the limited research on learning
Hypothesis 5 strategies on second language learning, led us to hypothesize that women
may have higher levels o foreign language achievement than men do.
Scarcella and Oxford (1992), Schleppegrell (1987) and Singleton
(1989) found that age is related to second language acquisition. According
to Ehrman and Oxford (1995), younger students are more likely to attain
fluency learning a foreign language, whereas older individuals are more
able to comprehend and to apply grammatical rules and to bring their
extensive life experiences into the foreign language into the foreign
language learning context. Oxford 91992) theorized that the relationship
between age and foreign language achievement depends on the stage at
which the language being learned, the prior experience of the student, the
level of cognitive maturity, and the mode in which the language is being
received, as well as various other social-psychological factors.
Lieberman (1984) and Newport (1986)reported that the ability to
acquire mastery of the fine points of language such as phonology and
morphology, as well as the capacity to speak a second language without
an accent, deteriorates severely with age. Moreover, it is possible that
older adults perform more poorly than do their younger counterparts on
variety of cognitive tasks in which a quick response is needed as is often
the case when learning a foreign language-in part because of situational
and motivational variables that are extraneous to ability. According to
Onwuegbuzie, Bailey and Daley (1999), cautiousness is one such
extraneous ability variable, in which lower levels of second language
performance reflect , in part , students; reluctance to pronounce, translate
, or to write words in the target language about which they are uncertain.
Research suggests a positive relationship between cautiousness and age
past adulthood ( Schaie & Gribbin, 1975). In addition, experimental
studies indicate that older adults tend to make more errors of omission
than commission (Okun, 1976; Okun, Siegler, & George , 1978). Given
those findings , together with the result o Onwuegbuzie et al.(1999), that
older students tend to have higher levels of foreign language anxiety , we
Hypothesis 6 hypothesized that there may be a negative relationship between age and
foreign language achievement.
Because foreign language courses often are rated by students as
being among the most difficult in their degree programs (Onwuegbuzie et
al, 1999), those who carry a heavy semester course load while enrolled in
foreign language classes likely will have insufficient time to learn the
target language. It is logical to expect that the ore courses that students
take overall, the more likely they will be to underachieve in foreign
language courses because of competing demand s for study time. Thus,
semester course load was included in the study as a potential predictor of
foreign language achievement. Also, we hypothesized that elective status
Hypothesis 7 of the course may be related positively to foreign language achievement.
Research has shown repeatedly that language aptitude is
positively related to foreign language achievement (Gardner et.al, 1997).
Sparks and Gauschow (1991) and Sparks , Gauschow, and Patton (1995)
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argued that language aptitude is the foremost predictor of foreign
language achievement . Thus, because it is reasonable to assume that
the more high school foreign language courses a student takes, the
greater her or his language aptitude, we hypothesized that the former also
may be a predictor o second language acquisition.
Motivation refers to a student’s attitude, interest, and effort to learn
a foreign language (Gardner et al, 1997).According to Gardner and his
colleagues(Gardner, 1985;Gardner et al, 1997) , motivation plays a
fundamental role in foreign language learning. Oxford and Shearin (1994)
theorized that motivation levels will be high only if students expect to
succeed and value that success. Because students who take foreign
language classes as an elective are more likely to expect success or to
value the learning context that are students who take these classes as a
degree requirement, the former will likely experience higher levels o
achievement.
Similarly, one may assume that students have visited many foreign
countries and shoes immediate family speak one or more foreign
language proficiently are more inclined to appreciate the benefits of
foreign language acquisition, and, consequently, are more motivated to
learn a language than are their counterparts. That is, it is likely that the
number of foreign countries visited by an individuals is an indication of
levels of integrative motivation. According to Clement (1980) integrative
motivation pertains to individuals’ positive affective predisposition toward
the second language community. Clement (1980)theorized that, provided
that contact with members of the target language is positive, the more
frequent the contact, the more motivated an individual will be to learn the
foreign language and the more confident he or she will be to use it. Thus,
we hypothesized that the number of countries visited and the foreign
Hypothesis 8 language proficiency of immediate family members may be related
positively to foreign language achievement.

Method
Participants
The sample comprised 184 students enrolled in Spanish (60.3%), French
(27.2%), German (9.8%), and Japanese (2.7%), introductory,
intermediate, and advanced courses at a midsouthern university.
Students participated voluntarily and were required to sign an informed
consent documents. A Kruskal Wallis one way analysis of variance
(ANOVA) revealed no differences in foreign language achievement
(p>.05) among students enrolled in the four language areas. In addition,
ANOVA revealed no achievement differences p>.05) with respect to level
of courses (i.e introductory, intermediate, and advanced). Therefore, the
responses o all participants were combined.
The ages o the respondents ranged from 18 to 71 (m= 22.5, S.d.=
6.4); 34.2% were men. The participants consist of freshmen (16.4%),
sophomores (18.6%), juniors (30.1%), seniors (31.7%) and graduate
students (3.3%). Those students who represented more than 30 degree
programs from the College of Business Administration, Education, Fine
Arts and Communication, health and Applied Science, liberal Arts, and
Natural Sciences and mathematics with a mean GPA o 3.1 (SD= 0.6). The
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Parts Specifics
majority of students (60.3%) were required to take the language course as
part of their degree program. the overall course load of the participants
ranged from 1 to 9 (M= 5.1, SD= 1.2). In addition, 84.8% of the
participants had studied a foreign language normally in high school,
whereas, 33.2% had done so in college. The majority of students (56%)
had never left the United States, of those who had, the number of
countries visited ranged from 1 to 9. Approximately one fifth (18.5%) o the
students had immediate family members whose native language was not
English.

Instruments & A battery of instruments use din the study included the Foreign Language
Procedures Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the Self-Perception Profile for College
Students (SPPCS), the Social Interdependence Scale (SIS), the
Academic locus of Control Scale ( ALC), The Study Habits Inventory(SHI),
and the Background Demographic Form (BDF) . Participants were given
the questionnaire packet containing the six instruments during the fourth
week o the semester. They were instructed to complete the battery of
instruments at home and return it within two weeks.
The FLCAS developed by Horwitz et. al (1986) is a 33 item likert
type questionnaire that assesses the degree to which students feel
anxious during language class. the scale has been shown to be both
reliable and valid, with an alpha coefficient of .93 and an 8 week test –
retest coefficient of .83 (Horwitz, 1991); Horwitzet.al , 1986). Validity was
established (Horwitz, 1991) via significant correlation with
communication apprehension , as measured by Mc Croskey(1970)
Personal Report of Communication Apprehension and with test anxiety as
measured by Sarason’s (1978) Test Anxiety Scale . Aida (1994), using a
sample of 96 students in a second year Japanese course, reported a
Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .94.
The SPPCS is a 54 item scale comprising 13 subcales (Neemann
& Harter, 1986). Many of the subscales were not considered relevant for
this study (e.g. perceived athletic competence, romantic relationships
close relationships, parent relationships and morality). Thus, we need the
following three subscales: a) perceived intellectual ability, b) perceived
self worth. According to Neemann and Harter, the reliabilities of the
subscales as assessed by coefficient alpha, range from .84 to .86.
The SIS, developed by Johnson and Norem-Hebeissen (1979) is a
22 item , 5 point (likert type questionnaire measuring individuals’
comparative, competitive and individualistic perception . Scores on the
cooperative (7 items) and individualistic (7 items) scale range from 7 to
35, whereas scores on the competitive, or individualistic the respondents
consider themselves to be. Scores on the scales are relatively
independent so that a student conceivably could receive a high school on
all three scales. Jones, Slate and Marini (1995) found that reliability as
measured by coefficient alpha, is .94 for the cooperative scale, 0.85 for
the competitive scale and 0.73 for the individualistic scale.
The ALC developed by Trice (1985), has 28 true –false items
related to personal control over academic outcomes. Scores range from 1
(strongly internal locus) to 28 (strongly external locus). Coefficient alpha
reliability has been found to range from 0.68 (Agnew, Slate, Jones, &
 39

Parts Specifics
Agnew, 1993) to 0.70 (trice, 1985)
The SHI, developed by Jones and Slate (1992) consists of 63 true-
false items that assess the typical study behaviors of college students.
Thirty item describe effective study behaviors and 33 items specify
ineffective study behaviors . the latter item are key reversed such that the
total scale scores ranges from 0 to 63, with high scores indicating good
study skills. The SHI has been found by its author to be reliable, as
measured by a mean alpha coefficient of .85 and a 2 week test-retest
coefficient of 0.82. Validity of the SHI has been established through
significant correlations with students’ grades (Jones & Slate, 1992). the
BDF developed specifically for this study extracted relevant demographic
information such as age, sex ethnicity, degree program, year of study,
native language and countries visited.
Finally, foreign language achievement was measured using
students’ course averages. the global measure was selected over isolated
measures o specific skills to maximize the external validity (i.e.
generalizability) of the findings. Use o numerical averages according to
the diverse achievement measures reflected in the course grades of this
study is consistent with Gardner & MacIntyre’s (1993) recommendation to
include “ many different measures o second language achievement in
studies concerned with affective correlates of achievement”(p.182). To
adjust for differences in teacher characteristics (e.g. effectiveness,
experience, motivation and testing and scoring standards), we used
standardized course averages instead of raw averages. Standardized
course average (i.e. z scores) were computed for each student by
subtracting the average achievement scores o the foreign language class
to which the student belonged from the student’s course and then dividing
by the class standard deviation.

Data Analysis Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (i.e. zero order correlation
coefficient) was used to assess the relationship between foreign language
achievement and each of the 18 independent variables. Correlation
coefficients, which can vary from -1 to +1, help to determine both the
magnitude and direction of pair wise relationships. The sign of the
magnitude verifies whether the relationship is positive or negative,
whereas the numerical part of the correlation coefficient indicates the
magnitude o the correlation. the closer the correlation coefficient is to 1 or
-1 , the greater the relationship between the variables.
Unfortunately, although correlation coefficient is perhaps the most
common inferential statistics used by researchers, it is subject to serious
limitation. Specifically, because a correlational analysis can be viewed as
assessing the contribution of an independent variable in isolation to an
dependent variable, it typically des not honor, in the optimal sense, the
nature of reality that most researchers want to study. the reason is
because most phenomena involve multiple effects. Tatsuoka (1973)
asserted the following:
The often heard argument , “ I’m more interested in seeing how
each variable in its own right, affects the outcome” overlooks the
fact that any variable taken in isolation may affect the criterion
differently from the way it will act in company of other variables. it
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Parts Specifics
also overlooks the fact that multivariate analysis –precisely by
considering all the variables simultaneously-can throw light on
how each one contributes to the relation (p. 273).
Thus, multiple regression was the major analysis used in the
present study. Multiple regression is a statistical procedure in which
scores on one or more variables (i.e. independent variables) are used to
predict score on another variable (i.e. dependent variable). Specifically,
we used all possible subset (APS) multiple regression. 9thompson, 1995)
to identify an optimal combination of cognitive, affective, personality and
demographic variables (ie. independent variables) that predicted levels o
foreign language achievement (dependent variable) . All possible models
involving some or all of the independent variables were examined.
(Thompson, 1995) In APS regression, separate regressions are
computed for all independent variables singly, all possible pairs of
independent variables, all possible trios of independent variables, and so
forth, until the best subset of independent variables is identified according
to some criterion. For this study, the criterion used was the maximum
proportion of variance explained (r2), which provides an important
measure of effect size (Cohen, 1988). That is r2, which lies from 0% to
100%, measure the extent to which the independent variables involved in
the model combine to predict the dependent variable. The utility of the
effect sizes is that they can be compared across studies. According to
Hocking (1976), APS regression leads to an identification of the model
with the largest r2 for ach o the number of variables considered. APS
regression is different from stepwise regression, in which the order of
entry o variables is based solely on statistical criteria. Stepwise regression
is not guaranteed to find the model with the largest r2(Hocking , 1976),
and thus most statistician do not recommend this type of analysis ,
preferring the use APS regression (Hubert , 1989; Thompson, Smith,
Miller & Thomson, 1991).
We also used multiple regression techniques to assess relative
contribution of each of the independent variables to the prediction of
foreign language achievement (Tabachnik & Fidell, 1989). Specifically, we
used squared semi partial correlation coefficient and squared partial
correlation coefficients to assess each variable’s unique contribution.
Squared semi partial correlation coefficients, also known as part
correlations, represent the amount by which r2 is reduced if a particular
independent variable is removed from the regression equation. That is,
squared semi partial correlation coefficient express the unique contribution
o te independent variable as a proportion of the total, variance o the
dependent variable (Cohen, 1988). According to Tabachnik & Fidell (1989,
p.151), “the squared semi-partial correlation is a very useful measure o
the importance o an independent variable”. Similarly, squared partial
correlation coefficient express the unique contribution of the independent
variable as a proportion of r2. In this study, we used squared partial
correlation coefficients like r2 directly as effect size estimates. (Cohen,
1988).
We used Cohen’s (1988) criteria to assess the contribution o the
independent variables. According to Cohen, for multiple regression
models in the behavioral sciences, squared partial correlation values
 41

Parts Specifics
between 2% and 12.99% suggest small effect sizes, values between 13%
and 25.99 % indicate medium effect sizes; and values of 26% and greater
suggest large effect sizes. These same criteria were used to assess the
proportion of the variance explained by the independent variables r2 was
suggestive of a small, medium or large effect.
Results Table 1 reports the correlation between foreign language achievement
scores and each of the cognitive, affective, personality and demographic
profiles.

Table 1: Correlation between Cognitive , Affective , Personality and

Demographic Variables and foreign language Achievement

Variables Foreign
Language
Achievement
Cognitive
Academic Achievement .37***
Study habits -.06
Expectation of foreign language .35***
achievement
Affective
Foreign language anxiety -.33***
Perceived intellectual .14*
Perceived scholastic competence .29***
Perceived self-worth .02
Personality
Cooperativeness -.22**
Competitiveness .12
Individualism .15*
Locus of control -.08
Demographic
Gender .16*
Age -.07
Semester course load .03
Number of countries visited .04
Number of high school foreign language .17*
courses taken
Status of present foreign language course -.11
Foreign language proficiency of immediate -.04
family members
*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

Correlations with Cognitive Variables

Of the three cognitive variables, two were significantly related to
foreign language achievement. Those variables were academic
achievement and a student’s expectation of her or his achievement in a
foreign language course. Specifically, students with the lowest levels of
foreign language performance tended to have the lowest levels of overall
 42

Parts Specifics
academic achievement and the lowest expectations of their achievement
in the foreign language course.

Correlations with Affective Variables

Three of the four affective variables were significantly related to
foreign language achievement, namely foreign language anxiety,
perceived intellectual ability, and perceived scholastic competence. Only
perceived self-worth was not associated with foreign language
performance. Those findings suggest that low foreign language achievers
tended to have the highest levels of foreign language anxiety and the
lowest levels of perceived intellectual ability and perceived scholastic
competence

Correlations With Personality Variables

Levels of cooperativeness and individualism were associated with
foreign language achievement. Specifically, students with the lowest
levels o foreign language achievement tended not to be individualistic but
were oriented toward cooperativeness.

Correlations With Demographic Variables

Two of the seven demographic variables significantly correlated
with foreign language achievement: gender and the number o high school
foreign language courses taken. That is, low foreign language achievers
tended to be men and to have taken the least number of high school
foreign language courses.

Multiple regression findings

Table 2 Selected Multiple regression Model for Predicting Foreign

language Achievement

Variables Regressi Standard r- Standardized Squared Squared

on error Value regression semipartial partial
Coefficie coefficient Correlation correlation
nt coefficient coefficient
(%) (%)
Intercept -0.64 0.89 -0.73
Foreign -0.40 0.09 - -0.29 10.5 13.8
language 4.28*
Anxiety **
Gender 0.34 0.12 2.82* 0.17 3.6 5.1
*
Academic 0.50 0.10 5.08* 0.32 11.5 14.9
Achievem **
ent
Expectatio 0.02 0.01 2.39* 0.17 5.0 7.0
n of -
foreign
language
Achievem
ent
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Parts Specifics
Cooperativ -0.31 0.10 3.11* -0.19 3.6 5.1
eness *
Note Model r2= .342, F(5, 178)=18.47; Adjusted R2= .323
*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

The APS multiple regression analysis revealed that the following

variables that contributed significantly (p<.001 to the predictors of foreign
language achievement: foreign language anxiety, gender , academic
achievement, expected overall average for current language course and
value placed on cooperative learning. The five item s comprised two
cognitive variables (academic achievement, student’s expected level of
achievement in their foreign language course), one affective variable
(Foreign language anxiety), one personality variable (cooperativeness)
and one demographic variable (gender), which combined to explain the
34.2% of the variation in foreign language achievement. We used Cohen’s
(1988) criteria to assess the predictive power o a set of independent
variables in a multiple regression model; the proportion of variance
explained indicates a large effect size because it exceeded 26%.
The selected regression model suggests that students with the
lowest levels of foreign language achievement tended to have at least one
of these characteristics: male, low academic achievers, high levels of
foreign language anxiety, low expectations of their overall average for the
current language course, and valued cooperative learning. The squared
semi partial correlation coefficient indicates that the overall academic
achievement was the best predictor, explaining 11.5% of the variance in
foreign language achievement. Foreign language anxiety, the next best
predictor, explained 10.5% of the variance. Expectation of overall average
for the current language course explained 5% of the variance, followed by
gender and value placed in cooperative learning, each o which explained
3.6% of the variance. Table 2 also reports the squared partial correlation
coefficients. As recommended by Cohen (1988), we used the values the
effect sizes with respect to each of the selected independent variables.
The criteria set by Cohen (1988) for squared partial correlation coefficients
suggest that the effect sizes pertaining to academic achievement and
foreign language anxiety approached moderate levels, whereas those
pertaining to expectation to overall average for the current language
course, gender and values placed on cooperative learning, were small.

Correlational Analysis

The correlational analyses revealed that the following nine variables

were significantly related to foreign language achievement: foreign
language anxiety, gender, academic achievement, expected final foreign
language course average, and cooperativeness; perceived scholastic
competence, perceived intellectual ability, individualism and number of
high school foreign language courses taken. the APS regression analysis
indicated that the following five variables predicted foreign language
performance: Foreign language anxiety, gender, academic achievement,
expected final foreign language course average, and cooperativeness. A
comparison of the sets of variables indicates a high degree o similarity.
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Parts Specifics
nevertheless, although perceived scholastic competence, perceived
intellectual ability , individualism , and number of high school foreign
language courses taken were identified by the correlation analysis, they
did not appear in the multiple regression model. That apparent
consistency should not be surprising because of the differences between
correlational and multiple regression analysis, In most cases, univariate
and multivariate analyses o the same data tend to yield results that differ
with respect to statistical significance and effect sizes(Fish, 1988).

Table 3 Intercorrelations Among Independent variables With

Significant Zero Order correlation with Foreign language
Achievement
Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1.Foreign
Language
Anxiety
2. Gender .14*
3.Academic -.03 .02
Achievement
4. Expected -.46*** -.02 .20**
final Foreign *
language
course
average
5. -.11 -.01 -.03 .06
Cooperativen
ess
6.Perceived -.40*** -.10 .30** .21* .07
scholastic *
competence
7.Perceived -.37 -.12 .06 .13* .07 .62***
intellectual
ability
8. .16** .05 .08 -.09 -.64*** -.04 -.08
Individualism
9. Number of -.20** .23** .05 .17** -.13* .01 -.04 .04
high school *
foreign
language
taken

An analysis of the intercorrelations among the nine

independent variables helps us explain why four variables that emerged
as significant in the correlational analysis were no longer identified as
important in the regression analysis. Perceived scholastic competence
was related to three variables that were significant predictors of foreign
language achievement, namely: foreign language anxiety, academic
achievement, and expected final foreign language course average. (Table
3)That finding suggests that once the three variables are in the regression
model, the predictive power of perceived scholastic competence is
diminished. In other words, by itself, perceived scholastic competence is
an important predictor o foreign language achievement. However, in
explaining second-language acquisition, knowledge o students’ perceived
scholastic competence does not appear to be as important as does
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Parts Specifics
knowledge of their GPA, their expected final foreign language course
average, and their level of foreign language anxiety. That result is not
surprising especially with respect to the latter two variables, because they
are more directly pertinent to foreign language learning than is perceived
scholastic competence, which is more global construct. Also, overall
academic achievement is more important than is perceived scholastic
competence to predict foreign language achievement, probably, because
performance is a more reliable indicator than is self-perception.
Similarly , failure for perceived intellectual ability to be included in
the regression model, despite being significantly correlated with foreign
language achievement, can be explained by the fact that the variable was
related to both foreign language anxiety and expected final foreign
language course average(Table 3). That failure indicates that perceived
intellectual ability does not add to the prediction of foreign language
performance once the variable are in the model.
Because individualism was related to foreign language anxiety and
cooperativeness (Table3), the latter two variables, once in the regression
model , likely made the inclusion of the former variable redundant. In
particular, the high correlation between individualism and cooperativeness
( r= -0.64) indicates a large degree of overlap between the variables,
cooperativeness appeared to dominate individualism with respect to the
prediction o foreign language achievement.
Finally , the presence of foreign language anxiety, gender,
expected final foreign language course average, and cooperativeness in
the regression model apparently diminished the role of number of high
school foreign language courses taken. In particular, it is likely that little or
no exposure to high school foreign languages courses tends to induce low
expectations of one’s ability to perform in foreign language classes, in
addition to relatively higher levels o foreign language anxiety.
Consequently, once anxiety and course expectation are modeled,
knowledge o students’ foreign language exposure in high school is no
longer particularly informative in terms of foreign language performance.

Discussion The purpose of this study was to explore the contribution of various
cognitive, affective, personality, and demographic variables with respect to
the prediction of foreign language achievement. This study is unique for
the following reasons: (a) achievement at all levels in the college foreign
language curriculum and in more than one foreign language was studied. ,
(b)a global measure of achievement was used., (c) raw scores were
converted to standardized scores to adjust the differences in teacher
grading characteristics, and (d) an adequate subject to variable ratio was
maintained.
The major finding of this study is that each class o variables was
represented in the selected regression model. The fact that a cognitive
variable (academic achievement) explains the greatest proportion of the
variance in oreign language achievement is consistent with Ehrman and
Oxford (1995), who found that this class of variables occupies that first tier
relarading explanatory power. the finding that an affective variable (foreign
language anxiety) was the next best predictor o foreign language
achievement also in accordance with those authors, because they
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concluded that “affective factors… are clearly the second echelon”
(Ehrman & Oxford,1995 p.82). Academic achievement and foreign
language anxiety combined to explain approximately 22% of the variance
in foreign language achievement, which represents a medium to large
effect size.
Two prior investigations in particular reported that foreign language
anxiety explains a greater proportion of variance in foreign language
achievement than that found in the present study. Sanchez-Herrero and
Sanchez (1992) reported that student anxiety in learning a foreign
language accounted for 38% of the variance in English achievement
among sixth, seventh and eighth grade students in public school in
Madrid, Spain. However, those authors used stepwise regression
procedures and an anxiety instrument with only modest internal
consistency reliabilities. Thus, their findings should be viewed with
caution. Horwitz (1991), after partialling out test anxiety, estimated that
foreign language anxiety accounts for approximately 25% of the variance
in foreign language performance. Because sample size in that study was
extremely small (n= 29), however, the 10.5% of the variance explained by
foreign language anxiety in this study is likely more accurate reflection.
Nevertheless, researchers should investigate the predictive power of
foreign language anxiety in the presence of other variables.
To the extent that overall GPA may be a global measure o native
language aptitude, the finding that overall academic achievement is the
best predictor of foreign language achievement is consistent with Sparks
and Gauschow (1991, 1993a, 1993b), who contended that native
language learning difficulties in mastering the phonological , syntactic, and
semantic codes of the language play the largest role in impeding the
acquisition of the foreign language(Sparks & Gauschow, 1991, 1993a,
1993b). However, the fact that foreign language anxiety also is an
important predictor appears to contradict the additional claim of those
authors that affective variables are mere side effects of having difficulties
in coding the native language (Sparks & Gauschow, 1991). Because the
percentage of variance in achievement explained by foreign language
anxiety in the present study remained large , even after controlling for
academic achievement ( i.e. an indicator of native language problems), it
is unlikely that Sparks and Gauschow (1995, p.240) are justified in their
contention that “ the problems of most foreign language learners will not
be found by studying the affective variables but by investigating how
language differences affect foreign language learning.”
If foreign language anxiety was solely a consequence o native
language differences, then, after controlling for academic achievement,
anxiety would have had no, or at least substantially lower, predictive
power. it is possible that for some individuals, native language learning
problems are the main reason for their low levels of foreign language
performance, whereas , for other students, anxiety is a debilitative actor.
Thus, researchers should continue to explore the extent to which students
with no diagnosable native language learning differences suffer from the
debilitative effects of foreign language anxiety.
The act that both low-achieving and high anxious student tend to
have the lowest levels of foreign language achievement seems to
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contradict Onwuegbuzie et al. (1999) , who found that high academic
achievers tend to have higher levels of foreign language anxiety than do
their low achieving counterparts. On closer examination, however, the two
sets o findings suggest that instructors should not assume that students
who have high levels o academic achievement do not experience
difficulties while learning foreign languages. It is likely that, although many
high levels of performance in foreign language classes, they still
experience high levels of foreign language anxiety. In the last year, an
author o this study used several students’ reports of anxiety to ascertain
that two of them were suffering from partial hearing loss and a third from
previously undiagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The GPA of the two students with hearing loss was 3.8 on a 4 point scale.
Those observations underscore the importance o determining anxiety
levels of students with both low levels and high levels o academic
achievement. Also, our findings suggest that interventions focusing on
anxiety management and reduction may be helpful for both groups of
students. In any case, researchers should investigate the potential causal
relationships, among academic achievement, foreign language anxiety
and foreign language performance.
Level of expectation, the second cognitive variable, was the third
most important predictor of foreign language achievement. the finding that
students who have low expectations o their foreign language ability tend
to have low levels of foreign language achievement might reflect the fact
that students have an accurate perception o their foreign language ability.
However, that finding also suggests that a self-fulfilling prophecy prevails
in which students who have low expectations of their foreign language
ability exhibit behaviors that may lead to underachievement. Onwuegbuzie
et al (1999) found that students with low self-perceptions of academic
competence and foreign language performance were more anxious.
Macintyre, Noels and Clement (1997) reported that, with actual language
proficiency controlled, anxious students tended to underestimate their
competence relative to less anxious students. Researchers should
continue to explore the relationship between student expectations and
achievement.
Gender, a demographic variable, explained 3.6% o the variance in
foreign language achievement. men appear to have lower levels of foreign
language achievement than do women. That finding may reflect Oxford
and Ehrman’s (1993) observation that women tend to use more conscious
learning strategies (e.g. metacognitive planning) than do men. However,
further research is needed to determine the generalizability of that finding.
To the extent that that result has high external validity, a female oriented
foreign language culture, which is similar to the female based “library
culture” reported by Jiao, Onwuegbuzie ,and Lichtenstein (1996) and
Jacobson (1991) may exist, in which men (a) are less comfortable in that
particular learning context, (b) may perceive that the domain is more
female based, and (c) act in ways that do not maximize their ability to
learn. Marsh (1995) found that female middle school students had more
positive attitudes about foreign language study than did their male
counterparts
A personality variable, cooperativeness, was the final factor that
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made an important contribution to foreign language achievement. the
finding that students who are oriented toward cooperative learning tend to
underachieve in their foreign language classes suggest that instructors
might consider using cooperative learning groups to solve in – class
problems, Cooperative learning “ refers to a particular set of classroom
techniques that foster learner interdependence as a route to cognitive and
social development” (Oxford, 1997 p. 443). Although no single method is
likely to increase student achievement, instructors could consider
emphasizing group work in a variety o formats ( Koch & Terrell, 1991). As
recommended by Foss and Reitzel ( 1988), students could be asked to
practice reading a script orally to members of their group before reciting it
in front of the whole class. Cooperative groups also could be used to
practice any role-playing activities. Assigning roles such as secretary or
reporter to individual students may improve self-esteem for some learners
and increase effectiveness of cooperative groups.(oxford, 1997). use of
such groups also could reduce the need for instructors to call on students
at random, because that action appears to increase anxiety levels(Daly,
1991).
Conclusion The findings from this study largely parallel those of Ehrman and Oxford
(1995) because, in this study, cognitive and affective factors appear to
play the largest role in predicting foreign language achievement. Thus, the
present research represent a step nearer to determining the “degree to
which… (Ehrman and Oxford’s results utilizing an ) FSI sample –older,
well educated , exceptionally highly motivated, and with a fairly clear
personality structure-can be generalized to other, more common
population such as college students” (Ehrman & Oxford, 1995 p. 84). the
finding that all four classes o variables were represented in the regression
model highlights the complex nature of individual differences in foreign
language achievement. Although, including factors such as
motivation(Clement et al, 1994; Gardner, 1985; Gardner& MacIntyre,
1991; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995) and more specific measures of native
language aptitude (Sparks & Gauschow, 1991; Sparks, Gauschow &
Patton, 1995) possibly would have increased the percentage of variance
explained , by maintaining the recommended subject to variable ratio we
provide reliable evidence to account for more than one third of the
variance in foreign language achievement at the college level. Using
Cohen’s (1988) criteria, more than 65% of the variance remains
unexplained. Thus, researchers should investigate the contribution made
by other cognitive, affective, personality and demographic variables to the
prediction o foreign language achievement in college,.