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A Path Model for Students' Attitude to Writing a Thesis

Writing a thesis can be characterized as the ultimate self-regulated learning task. Consequently, it is often a source of great anxiety for may students of higher education. Therefore, identifying the correlates of students' attitude to writing a thesis is essential if students are to be guided successfully through this process. In this paper some correlates of students' attitude to writing a thesis are identified and a general hierarchical path model is proposed in which action-control belief variables are seen as having both direct and indirect effects on students' attitude to writing a thesis. Using a sample of 90 undergraduate and graduate students, a modified version of the proposed model in which action-control belief variables had only an indirect effect on students' attitude to writing a thesis mediated through two academic orientation variables was found to fit the data best. This final model accounted for a large proportion of the repeatable variance in the two academic orientation variables and in students' attitude to writing a thesis. Issues related to identifying students in need of extra help are discussed briefly.