Abstract We examined the relationships among gender, planning, and academic expectations through the testing of two alternative models with latent variables tested with LISREL 8.80: one model considered planning as a mediator of the relationship between gender and academic expectations, and the other model considered academic expectations as mediators of the relationship between gender and planning. Participants were 662 first-year higher-education students from two academic years, predominantly female (60%) and mainly with majors in the juridical-social field (66.2%). The Inventario sobre Estrategias Metacognitivas (IEM; Inventory of Metacognitive Strategies) and the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire (APQ) were applied at the beginning of the first semester to assess planning and academic expectations, respectively. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the IEM’s structure after examining its psychometric properties with the sample from the first academic year (N = 338). The test of the alternative mediation models with the full sample indicates that the best model was that with planning as a mediator. In this model, gender directly predicted only two APQ academic expectations, but with the mediation of planning, gender predicted all seven academic expectations. Women showed higher levels of academic expectations and planning than did men. The results are discussed at both the theoretical and practical levels.

This paper aims to test the psychometric validity and reliability of a measure of first-year university students' expectations, based on a multidimensional conception of expectations. The sample consisted of 759 first-year students, attending various academic degrees at the Universities of Vigo - Ourense and University of Minho. The value Mdn age was 19, with only 5.3% with ages above 23 years. Participants answered a set of 56 items based on seven different dimensions of expectations. Results of confirmatory factor analysis, were carried out with LISREL. Factorial validity, and factors' convergent and discnmmant validity were assured. These results, along with evidences reliability, suggest that the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire presents a final structure composed of seven expectation dimensions, including 42 items: Training for employment/career, Personal and social development, Student mobility, Political and citi%enship involvement, Social pressure, Quality of education, and Social interaction. The equivalence of measurement model in the two languages and in two groups randomly derived from the full sample was also verified. The results of this structural validity study support the assessment of the expectations of first-year students in Higher Education with the questionnaire.

Desde una concepción multidimensional de las expectativas, este artículo pretende analizar la validez y precisión psicométrica de una escala para su medida en los estudiantes universitarios de primer año. La muestra (N = 759) estaba compuesta por alumnado de primer año, de diversas titulaciones académicas de la Universidad de Vigo-Campus de Ourense y de la Universidad de Minho. El valor de la Mdn de edad fue de 19, siendo sólo el 5.3% mayor de 23 años. A los participantes se les aplicó un conjunto de 56 ítems agrupados en siete dimensiones diferentes de expectativas. Los resultados del análisis factorial confirmatorio, se obtuvieron con el LISREL. Se garantizó la validez factorial, tanto convergente como discriminante de los factores. Ésta junto con su fiabilidad sugieren que el Cuestionario de Percepciones Académicas quedaría finalmente con 42 ítems distribuidos en siete dimensiones de expectativas: Formación para el empleo/carrera, Desarrollo personal y social, Movilidad estudiantil, Implicación política/ciudadanía, Presión social, Calidad de formación e Interacción social. Se comprobó la equivalencia del modelo de medida del instrumento en los dos idiomas y en dos grupos resultantes de la bipartición aleatoria de la muestra. Los resultados de la validez estructural de este estudio avalan la utilización del cuestionario para la medida de las expectativas de los estudiantes que inician por primera vez sus estudios en la Enseñanza Superior.