Academic Performance of College Student Servicemembers and Veterans: The Influence of Emotion Regulation, Self-Efficacy, and PTSD Symptom Severity

Despite increases in fiscal and human resources dedicated to support college student service-members and veterans (CSSV), retention rates remain low with a little over half of this population completing a postsecondary degree. This low retention rate is often attributed to emotional and psychological difficulties associated with transitioning from the stress of military and combat-related environments to civilian life. The current study investigated potential factors related to the academic performance of 412 CSSV. Investigators examined structural models to test hypothesized relationships of independent variables consisting of emotion regulation strategies; college self-efficacy (CSE); regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE); and PTSD symptom severity as predictors for self-reported cumulative grade point average (GPA). Consistent with the study hypotheses, path analyses of three structural models demonstrated the influence emotion regulation strategies have on academic outcomes and PTSD symptom severity. Additional mediation models demonstrated cognitive reappraisal, college self-efficacy and regulatory emotional self-efficacy as having direct paths significantly predicting GPA and PTSD severity. Structural models did not produce significant mediation between emotion regulation strategies and GPA. However, both college self-efficacy and regulatory emotional self-efficacy partially mediated cognitive reappraisal and PTSD symptom severity. Implications and specific recommendations for promoting and maximizing the academic success of CSSV are discussed.