The Effect of Prior Traumatic Events on Reading Comprehension and Metacognitive Monitoring in College Students
Open Access
- Author:
- Ferrara, Amanda Marie
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Psychology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- July 27, 2018
- Committee Members:
- Carlomagno Del Carmen Panlilio, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Rayne Audrey Sperling, Committee Member - Keywords:
- prior trauma
reading comprehension
metacognition
college students - Abstract:
- Students who have experienced traumatic events such as childhood maltreatment or neighborhood violence prior to the age of 18 often display worse educational outcomes than their peers in a four-year college context (e.g., Banyard & Cantor, 2004). However, the mechanisms driving this poor academic performance are largely unexplored. Using a self-regulated learning framework, the current study examines reported trauma status and trauma symptoms as well as emotionally salient distractor cues as potential mechanisms affecting student reading comprehension and metacognitive monitoring. Undergraduate students were assigned to one of three emotional conditions, in which they listened to a happy (n = 60), angry (n = 60), or neutral (n = 59) auditory stimulus while completing a reading task. Participants were tested on comprehension and metacognitive monitoring. Participants also reported prior childhood experiences of trauma, current trauma symptoms, academic metacognition, self-regulation strategy use, and maladaptive metacognition. It was hypothesized that students in the emotional prosody conditions would perform more poorly on a reading comprehension posttest, as well as demonstrate lower metacognitive monitoring than those in the neutral group. In addition, reported trauma status was hypothesized to interact with condition on posttest performance and metacognitive monitoring. Reported trauma symptomology was hypothesized to negatively predict posttest performance and metacognitive monitoring. Reported prior trauma and trauma symptomology were also hypothesized to be related to poorer self-reported engagement in self-reported academic metacognition and self-regulation strategy use, as well as increased self-reported maladaptive metacognition. Results indicated no main effect of emotional condition on a reading comprehension posttest. Additional analyses on metacognitive monitoring yielded contradictory results wherein students in the happy and angry conditions demonstrated more, rather than less, accurate metacognitive monitoring compared with the neutral condition. Reported trauma status did not have an effect on posttest performance or metacognitive monitoring. However, higher reported trauma symptomology was related to lower posttest performance and less overall confidence in posttest answers. Reported trauma status was not related to self-reported academic metacognition or self-regulation strategy use. Higher reported trauma symptomology was related to increased reported maladaptive metacognition. These results suggest that emotional experience may actually increase students’ metacognitive monitoring. In addition, the symptoms and subjective experience of trauma may be a more important predictor in student outcomes than the number of traumatic events experienced.