23: Influences on Precollege Students’ Use of Study Strategies

In this study of precollege students from a large Midwestern university, subscales from the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (Weinstein, 1987) were utilized to estimate the effects of demographic and cognitive factors on precollege students’ usage of study strategies and learning techniques. Controlling for a set of confounding influences, including race, gender, socioeconomic status, and precollege academic ability, the evidence from the study suggests that gender and level of precollege intellectual development positively affect study skills behavior. More specifically, the findings suggest that females are more likely than males to report that they use study strategies to complete academic work. In addition, students who scored higher on a measure of academic achievement also reported a greater use of study strategies.