Expectancy-value interactions and dropout intentions in higher education: can study values compensate for low expectancies?

Research highlights the importance of expectancy-value interactions in predicting secondary-school students’ academic achievement. But as students transition to higher education, their expectancies and values undergo significant changes – highlighting the need to broaden the application of expectancy-value interactions to this context. To address this, we investigate the interactions between higher education students’ expectancies and their values in relation to students’ dropout intention. Data of N = 1140 students were analysed using latent moderated structural equation modelling. Similar to prior research, we find that expectancy-value interactions are related to students’ dropout intention. But rather than the synergistic interactions commonly found in the secondary-school context, we find that higher education students exhibit compensatory interactions: High study values and low costs could, to a certain degree, compensate for low expectancies. Furthermore, special attention should be paid to students who see little value in their studies and have a low success expectation, as they showed dropout intentions that far exceed effects indicated in prior research.