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Prediction of Academic Motivation Based 0(0) 1–7
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Self-Efficacy, Academic Alienation and Social DOI: 10.1177/0272684X211004948
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Support in Paramedical Students

Ahmad Ahmadi1, Arash Ziapour2 , Javad Yoosefi lebni3, and

Nafiul Mehedi4

Abstract
Background: Academic motivation is one of the indices of success in scientific activities. Therefore, the goal of the present research
is to predict academic motivation based on variables of personality traits, academic self-efficacy, academic alienation, and social
support in students studying in different fields of paramedicine.
Method: The research was correlation-descriptive in which 183 paramedical university students in the academic year of 2019-2020
were selected by a two-stage cluster random sampling method, studying in the Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. The data
were collected through the Vallerand Academic Motivation questionnaire, NEO Personality Inventory Test, Sherer Self-Efficacy
questionnaire, Fleming Social Support questionnaire, and Johnson Academic Alienation, and the collected data were analyzed
(Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression) using SPSS V.22 software.
Findings: The results showed that personality traits of extroversion (b ¼ 0:255; p < 0:01), openness to experience
(b ¼ 0:185; p < 0:01), conscientiousness (b ¼ 0:136; p < 0:01), and self-efficacy could predict academic motivation, significantly;
but neuroticism (b ¼ 0:188; p < 0:05), and academic alienation (b ¼ 0:111; p < 0:05) reversely related to academic motivation.
Self-efficacy (b ¼ 0:121; p < 0:05) could significantly predict academic motivation. There was also a significant relationship between
social support and academic motivation.
Conclusion: The results of the research illustrated that some of the personality traits and self-efficacy had a positive role in predicting
academic motivation among paramedical students, and neuroticism and alienation had a reverse negative role in academic motivation.
Therefore, in order to promote the academic level of students, it is necessary to improve the harmful effects of self-efficacy and some
personality traits that improve better learning performance and quality.

Keywords
academic motivation, personality traits, academic self-efficacy, academic alienation, social support

Introduction
Motivation is one of the most influential factors for inspiring 1
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University,
people to accomplish their goals.1 It is the heart of learning, Tehran, Iran
and learning is the goal of education. It is considered as a 2
Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health (RCEDH), Health
prerequisite of learning in the form of psychological pre- Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
3
Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lorestan University of
paredness and quite noticeably affects learning and educa-
Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
tion.2 Education involves many personal and social benefits, 4
Department of Social Work, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology,
and like any other human activity, it requires motivation. Sylhet, Bangladesh
Student’s academic motivation has composed of many com-
Corresponding Author:
plex and dynamic beliefs and opinions, which is formed grad- Javad Yoosefi lebni, Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lorestan
ually during education and encourages students to achieve a University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran.
stable and comprehensive of abilities and competences in [email protected]
2 International Quarterly of Community Health Education 0(0)

school learnings.3–5 Many studies have examined the rela- One of the social determinants of academic motivation is
tionship between academic motivation and various variables. social support, which refers to a social network that provides
Personality traits, including academic self-efficacy, academic individuals with sensible and psychological resources. It has a
alienation, and social support are among the variables that deep impact on a student’s everyday life. Lack of on-time and
affect students’ academic motivation.6 The findings of enough social support to the person when she/he does need
Poorpat’s research in studying the relationship between per- it, contribute to negative impacts such as isolation, depres-
sonality and academic performance using meta-analysis sion, decreased self-esteem, academic burn out, and helpless-
showed that academic performance had a significant and ness.15 Another positive impact of social support is student’s
positive relationship with adjustment, deontology, and open- improved adaptation with university.16 Although social sup-
ness to experience.7 In this regard, Rosandro et al. in their port is in a positive correlation with academic self-efficacy, it
study, Personality traits and Genera Intelligence as received feedback from others and the amount of received
Predictors of Academic Performance showed that the results reassuring from them regarding an individual’s competences
of the structural equation model expressed that general intel- to accomplish academic activities can improve her/his aca-
ligence, deontology, extroversion, and neuroticism had a sig- demic self-efficacy.17 Since paramedical academic disciplines
nificant relationship with academic performance.8 Another deal with human life, therefore decreased students’ motiva-
single variable examined in this research was academic tion in this field can have catastrophic consequences on the
self-efficacy. Self-efficacy was a key personal source in the community’s health, which in turn wastes a lot of resources.
evolution, adjustment, and personal change, and it was the One of the most important problems is the high rate of aban-
person’s subjective judgments about her/his abilities and donment in this field of study by students. Each year, about
competences to organize and execute the courses of needed 15 to 20 percent of paramedical students around the world
actions for upcoming events affecting her/his life. Self- drop out of university, which can lead to a shortage of para-
efficacy has been considered as a key structure to improve medical staff.18 In other words, a high decline of paramedical
learning and academic progress; many studies have shown students and reluctance of continuing in this profession has
self-efficacy has a positive and significant relationship with led to many studies on academic motivation of paramedical
academic progress.9 Students with positive beliefs about their students; the reports presented about the students purports
competences had a better academic performance, and con- that many students have not had enough motivation during
versely, students who had negative judgments about their their studies and their desire to work in this profession has
competences and abilities, such as low self-efficacy, had decreased. Any deficiency and inadequacy on the part of
weak motivation and performance in educational mat- paramedical students will affect the quantity and quality
ters.10,11 Abedini in his study examined the academic prog- of health care and endanger the health of all the members
ress of high school students, based on self-efficacy in which of society.19 Based on what was presented and regarding pre-
he concluded there was a significant relationship between vious researches, the goal of the present research is to predict
self-efficacy and field of study in predicting academic prog- academic motivation based on variables of personality traits,
ress of the students.12 academic self-efficacy, academic alienation, and social sup-
Academic alienation refers to emotional or cognitive sep- port in students studying in different fields of paramedicine
aration from different contextual aspects of education like in year of 2019–2020.
the procedure of learning and education, the atmosphere of
the university, lecturers, and other students as well as the
sense of separation from their scientific products or to be Methods
concise “academic human.”13 In their study, Hematti et al.
Study Design
categorized academic alienation into five dimensions: power-
lessness, meaninglessness, anomaly, pessimism, and social This is a descriptive-correlation study. In this study, the sta-
isolation. Powerlessness refers to the student’s perception of tistical population was selected among the paramedical stu-
a lack of personal control over learning; anomaly illustrates a dents of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences located
lack of appropriate acceptable behavior, including academic in western Iran studying in the school year of 2019–2020, 183
dishonesty; meaninglessness refers to students’ interpretation students were selected using a two-stage cluster random sam-
regarding the fact that their curriculum is not related to the pling method. Questionnaires were distributed at the univer-
needs of present and future; social isolation is marked by sity and Data collection took 6 months and 8 questionnaires
loneliness and separation of students from lectures and were incomplete therefore were not reviewed. The volume of
their peers, and in general, separation from society. the sample was selected based on Kerjecie-Morgan Model.
Therefore, academic alienation has a great impact on the The inclusion criteria for the study included bachelor and
academic motivation of the students.13 Etanfo reported a master students of paramedical disciplines and their willing-
negative correlation between alienation and motivation of ness to participate in the survey. We excluded some partic-
progress in mathematics, gender, and academic alienation, ipants who showed no interest in the study or returned
which was significant at the level of 0.05.14 incomplete questionnaire forms. The collecting tools of the
Ahmadi et al. 3

standard questionnaire data were as follows: in order to mea- test of multiple regression was performed. Ethical approval
sure academic motivation, Valrand Academic Motivation was obtained from the Ethical Review Committee of KUMS
Scale was used, which is based on the Self-Determination (IR.KUMS.REC.1398.703). The purpose of the study was
Theory of Deci and Ryan and was designed and validated explained to all participants. Written informed consent was
by Valrand, Blais, Briere & Pelletier in Canada.20 This ques- obtained from all participants, and they were assured of ano-
tionnaire has 28 items, in which the respondent specifies her/ nymity and confidentiality.
his level of agreement and disagreement for each item based
on a 7-point Likert Scale. The reliability of this tool in
Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient was 0.87.21 In this continuum,
Results
“1” indicates “strongly disagree” and “7” indicates “strongly Table 1 illustrates the demographic characteristics of para-
agree” and “4” indicates the middle and measures the three medical students of Kermanshah University of Medical
components of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, Sciences.
and academic lack of motivation. Neo-FFI short-form ques- Table 2 Depicts mean and standard deviation of person-
tionnaire was used to measure personality traits. This ques- ality traits scale of academic self-efficacy, academic alien-
tionnaire includes 5 domains and 60 items. These domains ation, and social support with the academic motivation of
are respectively, neuroticism (N), extroversion (E), openness paramedical students.
to experience (O), agreeableness (A), and conscientiousness The Pearson regression for examining the relationship
(C). Each of the five domains is measured with 12 items between personality traits, self-efficacy, academic alienation,
(questions). Each question should be responded on a Likert and social support are presented in Table 3. Between person-
scale as strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, and ality traits, there is a negative correlation between neuroti-
strongly agree. The reliability of all subscales was obtained cism with academic motivation, and the correlation is
with Cronbach’s alpha above 0.70.22 Sherer’s self-efficacy positive and significant (p < 0:05) between extroversion,
questionnaire was used to measure the self-efficacy variable. openness to experience, and conscientiousness with academic
This questionnaire has 17 items and measures the individual’s motivation (Table 3).
ability to overcome different situations.23 Sherer et al. (1982) Multiple regression test was used to predict academic
without specifying the items and factors believe that this scale motivation according to variables of personality traits, aca-
measures three aspects of behavior including, tendency to demic self-efficacy, academic alienation, and social support
initiate, continuing to try to complete the behavior, and resis- in students of paramedicine. Table 4 presents the results of
tance against obstacles. Sherer’s general self-efficacy scale step-by-step regression analysis to predict academic motiva-
has 17 items. On a 5-point Likert scale, the items are tion by personality traits, academic self-efficacy, academic
scored from 1 to 5. Items number 1, 3, 8, 9, 13, and 15 are alienation, and social support. According to the results of
scored as “strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, the table, the coefficient of determination (R squared) is
disagree, strongly disagree” and the remaining items are equal to 0.476, which indicates that predictor variables
scored conversely. The lowest score on this scale is 17, and have defined 47.6 percent of the academic motivation vari-
the highest score is 85; higher scores indicate a higher sense of ance of the students (Table 4).
self-efficacy. The reliability of this tool was 0.83, according to
Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient.24
To examine the academic alienation of students Johnson’s Discussion
academic alienation questionnaire25 was used. This question- The present research aimed to examine the role of personality
naire is composed of 4 items, and they are based on a 5-point traits such as academic self-efficacy, academic alienation, and
Likert scale ranging from “totally wrong” to “totally social support in predicting students’ motivation. A total of
correct.” In one research, Cronbach’s alpha was 0.79, 81 male and 102 female formed the population of the study.
which indicated good reliability for this tool.26 Also, the con-
firmatory factor analysis method was used to examine its Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Paramedical Students.
validity, and fit indices indicated a good validity for this
questionnaire.27 In the present research, Cronbach’s alpha Variable Groups Frequency %
coefficient was obtained 0.89 for this questionnaire. The Gender Male 81(44.27)
social support scale developed by Fleming, Baum, Gasril, Female 102(55.73)
and Gachal was used to measure social support.27 This ques- Age 19–20 66(36.06)
tionnaire has 25 items. The reliability of the social support 21–23 83(45.35)
questionnaire was 0.86, using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.28 24–26 24(18.57)
The content validity of this questionnaire was inspected by Education Bachelor 138(75.40)
faculty members and professors. Finally, after the distribu- Master 45(24.59)
Marital status Single 124(68)
tion of questionnaires among students, data was collected
Married 59(32)
and analyzed by SPSS V. 22 software, and the statistical
4 International Quarterly of Community Health Education 0(0)

Also, the age of the studied population was ranging from Neuroticism is a component of personality, in which at one
were at the master’s level. The mean and standard deviation end, stability and anxiety are low, and at the other end, sta-
of the indices, such as social support, academic motivation, bility and anxiety are high. Therefore, it is clear, individuals
and self-efficacy respectively constituted the highest values. with high levels of neuroticism, anxiety, and arousal cannot
The results of the present research indicated that from have the proper academic motivation and academic
personality traits, neuroticism was in a significant inverse performance.
relationship with academic motivation. This finding is in The results of the research showed openness to experience,
line with Lidera’s research, conducted in one of the univer- conscientiousness positively predicted academic motivation.
sities in the Republic of Estonia.29 It was also matched with In line with these findings, Farnham and Promozik found
the finding of Komarraju et al.,30 and Freund and Holling.31 this relationship meaningful, in a study on student’s individ-
uals with a high level of openness to experience were more
willing to help others.31 In a study in New Jersey University
Table 2. Mean and Standard Deviation of Indices. conducted by Liao et al.32 reported that the personality trait
Variable Mean  SD Rank of openness to experience led to creating and maintaining a
useful relationship with classmates, and lectures. Conard33 in
Neuroticism 25.10  3.54 Ninth
his study in 2006 stated that the personality trait of agree-
Personality Extroversion 32.38  5.41 Forth
ability was in a positive and significant relationship with suc-
Traits Introversion 28.97 4.15 Sixth
Agreeability 31.14  6.82 Fifth cess, and academic motivation and thus, it verified the results
Conscientiousness 27.50  4.38 Eighth of the present research. In analyzing these findings, it can be
Self-efficacy 35.08  7.12 Third said individuals with elevated academic motivation who are
Academic alienation 28.19  4.73 Seventh successful in their profession can increase their levels of aspi-
Social support 46.95  9.39 First ration realistically. They tend to do jobs that are more com-
Academic motivation 37.61  8.91 Second petitive and harder to do and cannot be adapted to the
current situation.

Table 3. Correlation Coefficients Matrix Between the Variable of the Research.

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1. Nerouticis 1
2. Extrovorsion 0.282** 1
3. Oppenness to experience 0.306** 0.452** 1
4. Agreeability 0.339** 0.298** 0.327** 1
5. Conscientiousness 0.244** 0.340** 0.409** 0.511** 1
6. Self-efficacy 0.280** 0.217** 0.346** 0.277** 0.286** 1
7. Academic alienation 0.140* 0.306** 0.325** 0.275** 0.275** 0.414** 1
8. Social support 0.223** 0.217** 0.325** 0.148* 0.156* 0.274** 0.181** 1
9. Academic motivation 0.368** 0.391** 0.457** 0.122 0.464** 0.503** 0.429** 0.097 1
*Meaningfulness at 0.05 level. **Meaningfulness at 0.01 level.

Table 4. Regression Analysis for Prediction of Academic Motivation Through Personality Traits, Academic Self-Efficacy, Academic Alienation, and
Social Support.

Unstandardized coefficients Standardized coefficients

Standard Level of Level of

Model>> B error Beta t meaningfulness R R squared F value meaningfulness

Stability 31.134 2.740 11.364 0.001 0.690 0.476 54.881 0.01

Neuroticism 0.568 0.169 0.188 3.353 0.001
Extroversion 0.685 0.161 0.225 4.260 0.001
Openness to 0.446 0.115 0.158 3.893 0.001
experience
Conscientiousness 0.280 0.107 0.136 2.604 0.010
Self-efficacy 0.358 0.151 0.121 2.377 0.018
Academic alienation 0.335 0.153 0.111 2.194 0.029
Ahmadi et al. 5

In this research, extroversion directly had a significant Strengths and Limitations

relationship with academic motivation. In a study, conducted
Among the strengths of the present study, the four variables
in 2003, Farnham and Promuzik on the students concluded
of personality traits, academic self-efficacy, academic alien-
that academic motivation was higher among extrovert stu-
dents.31 The role of conscientiousness (being conscionable) in ation, and social support were examined simultaneously on
academic motivation was found significant in this study, and academic motivation, while in other studies, the effect of one
it was in line with Petska’s study at Lincoln University.34 It is or two variables was measured. One of the limitations of the
also matched with the findings of researches conducted by present study was that the statistical population was limited,
Camro, Prumuzik, Farnhaum, quoted in Zhang,35 Pourmirza who were students studying in paramedical disciplines. Also,
Kalhori et al.,36 and Wagerman and Funder.37 Given that the use of semester grades (scores) as an indicator of academ-
people with high scores on conscientiousness had character- ic achievement was associated with the limitations. So, it is
istics such as order, effort, and responsibility. It was inferred recommended that researchers use standardized test scores in
that these characteristics influenced the person to continue future research. It is also suggested that the current issue be
studying with more perseverance and responsibility, and as a addressed in other universities and disciplines.
result, achieved higher success and progress.38
According to the findings of the present research, there
was a significant relationship between academic self-efficacy Conclusion
and students’ academic motivation. In other words, self-
The results of the present research illustrated that openness
efficacy predicted academic motivation, this finding is in
line with studies conducted by Tirgari et al.39 Tella and to experience, conscientiousness, and self-efficacy meaning-
Tella,40 Hayashi et al.41 Yazici et al.42 Tabernero and fully predicted academic motivation in paramedical students
Hernandez43 also reported that self-efficacy was one of the but neuroticism, and alienation conversely affected academic
academic motivation predictors. Niehahaus et al. confirmed motivation. Besides, social support and agreeability did not
the effective role of self-efficacy in the prediction of academic play any role in predicting students’ academic motivation.
motivation. By explaining this finding, it can be said that Therefore, in order to improve the academic motivation of
high self-efficacy leads to high levels of motivation and con- students, and to prevent harmful effects of academic alien-
tinuous effort; Effective ideas can also determine the direc- ation and neuroticism in creating academic problems, it is
tion and path of people’s lives.4,11 Since the students necessary to provide a setting to improve self-efficacy and
participating in the present study had a high level of self- some other personality traits.
efficacy and according to the results of Betoret’s research,44
people with high levels of self-efficacy had more adaptive
resources than stress in work and study situations and Authors’ Name
enjoyed more from their academic performance. Javad Yoosefi lebni is now affiliated to Department of Social
Accordingly, the high level of self-efficacy of paramedical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical
students helped them to enjoy their academic activities Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran.
more and improved their motivational orientation. The
results of this study also showed that the correlation between
Acknowledgments
the variables of academic alienation and academic motiva-
tion was inversely significant. These results are consistent Our grateful thanks go to all participants in the present study.
with the studies conducted by Atnafu,14 Huscher and
Hagenauer45 Barnhardt and Gins.46 Because students with Ethical Approval
academic alienation felt a lack of personal control in the The Ethical Review Committee of the University approved the
learning process, and they did not see legitimacy in the learn- study with reference number: IR.KUMS.REC.1398.115.
ing process as well as isolated themselves from others. So a
lack of academic motivation was not out of the question. Declaration of Conflicting Interests
According to the findings, social support could not pre- The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
dict students’ academic motivation. The results of the stud- to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
ies conducted by Gao et al.47 and Adler et al.48 showed that
there was no direct relationship between social support and Funding
academic motivation, rather indirectly and through interme- The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-
diary variables, it was self-efficacy beliefs that exerted their ship, and/or publication of this article.
influences. Marsh49 found that students with high self-
esteem appeared to be more energetic in their educational ORCID iDs
processes, and as a result, their academic motivation Arash Ziapour https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8687-7484
increased indirectly. Nafiul Mehedi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7475-257X
6 International Quarterly of Community Health Education 0(0)

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adjustment in the first year undergraduate students of Kerman Ahmad Ahmadi, PhD in Educational Technology at Allameh
University of Medical Sciences in 2015. Educ Strat Med Sci
Tabataba’i University. His research interests are in
2017; 10: 157–164.
Educational interventions and Educational Technology.
40. Tella A, Tella A and Adeniyi SO. Locus of control, interest in
schooling and self-efficacy as predictors of academic achieve-
ment among junior secondary school students in Osun State, Arash Ziapour, PhD student of Health Education and Health
Nigeria. New Horizon Educ 2011; 59: 25–37. Promotion at Iran University of Medical Sciences Iran and
41. Hayashi A, Chen C, Ryan T, et al. The role of social presence Researcher at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences.
and moderating role of computer self efficacy in predicting the His research interests are in Sociology, social determinants of
continuance usage of e-learning systems. J Inform Systems Educ health, Health Promotion, public health, health care, Health,
2020; 15: 139–154. Health Literacy, Diabetes, children’s health, Social Health
42. Yazici H, Seyis S and Altun F. Emotional intelligence and self- and Life Style.
efficacy beliefs as predictors of academic achievement among
high school students. Procedia – Proc-Soc Behav Sci 2011; 15: Javad Yoosefi lebni, PhD in Health Education and Health
2319–2323. Promotion from Iran University of Medical Sciences.
43. Tabernero C and Hernández B. Self-efficacy and intrinsic moti-
Interested in Research in the areas of Social Determinants
vation guiding environmental behavior. Environ Behav 2011; 43:
of Health, Addiction, Women’s Health, Children’s Health,
658–675.
Quality Research and Health Promotion.
44. Betoret FD. Stressors, self-efficacy, coping resources, and burn-
out among secondary school teachers in Spain. Educ psychology
2006; 26: 519–539. Nafiul Mehedi, is a Social Work student at the Shahjalal
45. Hascher T and Hagenauer G. Alienation from school. Int J University of Science and Technology. His research interests
Educ Res 2010; 49: 220–232. include Public Health, Epidemiology, Health and Human
46. Barnhardt B and Ginns P. An alienation-based framework for Rights, Mental Health, Social Work, Health Education and
student experience in higher education: new interpretations of Health Promotion, Health Policy.