A COMPARISON OF THE STUDY HABITS AND ATTITUDES OF SAMPLES OF REVERSE TRANSFER STUDENTS AND NATIVE STUDENTS ENROLLED IN A COMMUNITY COLLEGE

This investigation examined the similarities and differences in the self-reported study habits and attitudes of samples of reverse transfer students (students who enrolled in a four-year college or university originally and subsequently transferred to a community college) and native students enrolled in a community college. A sample of 51 reverse transfer students and 65 native students enrolled in the fall semester of 1984 at Montgomery College completed two questionnaires: the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA), a questionnaire designed to assess the study habits and attitudes of college students, and the Survey of Student Characteristics (SSC), an inventory designed by the researcher to elicit descriptive and motivational information from the study samples. Six hypotheses were derived relating to the differences in the study habits and attitudes of the study samples. The hypotheses were tested by a series of t tests. The .05 level of significance was chosen as the critical value for confirmation of the hypotheses. The findings indicate that on two of the seven dimensions of the SSHA, Study Habits and Study Attitudes, reverse transfer students had significantly higher mean scores than native students. These findings suggest that reverse transfer students, as compared to native students, have more effective study habits and more positive study attitudes. There were no significant dfferences between the mean study habits and study attitudes scores for the reverse transfer student and SSHA normative samples. Similarly, there were no significant differences between the mean study habits and study attitudes scores for male reverse transfer students and female reverse transfer students. The data supported the conclusion that reverse transfer students are in less need of remedial-developmental services with respect to study habits and attitudes as compared to native students. This implies that no special programming need be designed for reverse transfer students in this regard. On the other hand, native students can benefit from remedial-developmental programs in the areas of effective study habits and positive study attitudes development.