Understanding the academic motivations of students with a history of reading difficulty: an expectancy-value-cost approach

We examined the academic self-efficacy, positive subjective task values, and perceived effort cost of first-year undergraduates with (n = 168) and without (n = 314) a self-reported history of reading difficulty, and further their relations with academic achievement and satisfaction. Students with a self-reported history of reading difficulty described lower academic self-efficacy, earned lower grades, and accrued fewer credits. The groups did not differ significantly in their positive task values, effort cost, academic satisfaction, or institutional retention. Path analyses indicated that for both groups, academic self-efficacy and effort cost were predictive of first-year academic performance while intrinsic value was predictive of academic satisfaction and institutional retention. Multi-group analyses indicated a significant group difference: academic self-efficacy explained unique variance in academic satisfaction for students without a self-reported history of reading difficulty, but not for those who reported such a history. We discuss implications of the relations between difficulties in reading acquisition and motivations.