Motivation and Academic Resilience in University Students: The Moderating Role of Age

University students face ongoing challenges, stressors and pressure throughout the course of their study. Academic resilience is defined as students’ capacity to cope with those chronic stressors that pose a major threat to long-term academic success (Martin & Marsh, 2009). The present study examined the effect of five motivational predictors of academic resilience proposed by Martin and Marsh – self-efficacy, persistence, planning, low uncertain control and low anxiety – in a sample of university students. It looked at the moderating role of age in this relationship, comparing differences between school leavers and mature-aged students. Participants comprised 466 undergraduate psychology students (337 females, M_age = 25.11) who completed a brief version of the Motivation and Engagement Scale University-College (MES-UC) and Academic Resilience Scale (ARS). Results show that adaptive components of the MES-UC scale were positively related to academic resilience. The moderating effect of age in these was significant for self-efficacy, planning and persistence, whereby this effect was more pronounced for mature-aged students. These results suggest that interventions to increase academic resilience in university students should focus on enhancing adaptive aspects of motivation and behavioural engagement, and this is particularly important for older university students.