Linking Intentions and Behavior: Australian Students’ College Plans and College Attendance

Using data gathered as part of a study of young people’s early career attainments, this paper examines factors that influence Australian high school seniors’ plans to attend college and their actual entry into college. The paper applies the Fishbein-Ajzen (1975) model of attitude-behavior relations to the particular issue of the link between intentions to continue school and the realization of those intentions. Results show that the Fishbein-Ajzen model provides a useful, but incomplete, representation of the educational attainment process. In accord with the Fishbein-Ajzen model, favorable attitudes toward higher education, parental encouragement, and friends’ college plans all lead to the formation of intentions to enter college. Intentions, in turn, predict actual college attendance. Other results, however, suggest revisions in the Fishbein-Ajzen model. In particular, college entry was affected by attitudes toward college, academic achievement, and parental encouragement, over and above the effect of intentions. Moreover, behavioral intentions were shaped by academic achievement and by perceived academic ability, in addition to attitudes and perceived social norms. Finally, evidence was obtained that several variables in the model, such as gender and perceived parental encouragement, have interactive effects on college plans and college attendance. The results lend support to Liska’s (1984) argument that social-structural opportunities and resources must be considered when applying the Fishbein-Ajzen model to behaviors such as entry into higher education.