Motivation to learn by age, education, and literacy skills among working-age adults in the United States

Large-scale Assessments in Education

An IERI – International Educational Research Institute Journal

Table 2 Ranking by mean motivation to learn for 16 subgroups defined by gender, age group, and educational attainment

Ranking	Group	Group description	Factor mean	Group with significantly smaller factor mean^a
1	2	College+, age 25–34, men	0.59	3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
2	4	College+, age 35–44, men	0.53	3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
3	1	College+, age 25–34, women	0.47	9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
4	5	College+, age 45–54, women	0.40	11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
5	8	College+, age 55–65, men	0.40	11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
6	7	College+, age 55–65, women	0.39	11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
7	6	College+, age 45–54, men	0.37	12, 13, 14, 15, 16
8	3	College+, age 35–44, women	0.36	12, 13, 14, 15, 16
9	9	College−, age 25–34, women	0.31	13, 14, 15, 16
10	10	College−, age 25–34, men	0.30	13, 14, 15, 16
11	11	College−, age 35–44, women	0.22	15, 16
12	12	College−, age 35–44, men	0.18	15, 16
13	13	College−, age 45–54, women	0.07
14	14	College−, age 45–54, men	0.07
15	16	College−, age 55–65, men	0.00
16	15	College−, age 55–65, Women	−0.03

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies, 2012/2014/2017 Restricted Use File Data
The ranking shows 1 (high)–16 (low) motivation to learn
College+ = college or higher education; college− = less than college education
For the group value and group description, see Fig. 1
^aStatistically significant difference (p < 0.001)