Motivational variables that influence the attendance of science trainees at research seminars

Science trainees at a pediatric research center are strongly encouraged to attend research seminars, yet their attendance at lectures has steadily declined, jeopardizing the academic environment and the reputation of the institution. Identifying the motivational variables that contribute to the behavior of trainees was the focus of the present study.;A 19 item modified Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was developed to assess the trainee's "perceived values", "academic self-efficacy", "control beliefs" and "mental effort". Cronbach's alpha values were high for items assessing the "perceived values", "academic self-efficacy" and "control beliefs" variables, but low for the "mental effort" construct. A SPSS-based factor analysis identified 4 distinct factors (F1-F4) of which F1 was similar to the "perceived values" variable and F2 was similar to the "academic self-efficacy" variable. F3 represented a composite of items from the "control beliefs" and the "mental effort" variables, while F4 represented the "attendance" (persistence) variable.;Correlation coefficient calculations demonstrated a linear and positive correlation between "perceived values" and "academic self-efficacy" (.706, p<.000), between "perceived values" and "attendance" (.570, p<.000), and between "academic self-efficacy" and "attendance" (.510, p<.000). A multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that the "perceived values" construct is highly predictive of attendance (R2=.348, p<.006).;These data suggest that trainees who value research seminars are highly likely to attend these events, although the reasons why some trainees value these events while others don't remain to be determined.