HARDINESS AND STUDENT STATUS AS A NONCOGNITIVE PREDICTOR OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS AND ACHIEVEMENT FOR GENERIC BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS.
Contributors: Widener University School Of Nursing.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 186
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Personality.; Education, Higher.
Description: The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship of the noncognitive predictor of hardiness and student status to successful completion and achievement in a specific generic baccalaureate nursing course. Kobasa's concept of hardiness as a personality characteristic provided the theoretical framework for this study.

Student status was defined as either traditional or nontraditional. The variable of hardiness was measured by Kobasa's Personal Views Survey (PVS) and Pollock's Health Related Hardiness Scale (HRHS). A composite score, as well as scores for the hardiness components of control, commitment, and challenge, was determined for the sample of 295 female students from ten randomly selected nursing programs in the National league for Nursing (NLN) Region 1.

The hardiness scores were combined with student status as the predictor variable in various step-wise multiple regression analyses. Either course completion or course achievement served as the criterion variable. Concurrent use of the PVS and the HRHS provided information regarding the use of these instruments with the student nurse population.

A factor analysis for the PVS revealed that there was support for the validity of the composite score but the subscores of control, commitment, and challenge lacked validity. Both the PVS and the HRHS were found to have acceptable reliabilities.

The hypothesis predicting that hardiness and student status were positively associated with course completion was not supported. The hypothesis predicting that hardiness and student status together were positively associated with achievement in a specific nursing course was supported.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-09, Section: B, page: 4593.

Thesis (D.N.SC.)--WIDENER UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NURSING, 1992.

School code: 0969.