Relationship between study time, self-regulation of learning and academic achievement in university students

The objective of this work is to evaluate the importance of a high, average or low academic performance with respect to study time, self-regulated learning processes and later academic performance. The research was based on a sample of 735 university students (75% male and 25% female), with an average age of 20 years (DT = 1.53). An explanatory model of the relationship between study variables was contrasted using a multigroup structural equations model (SEM). The results show that the model proposed explains a good part of the relationships among the variables that comprise it. Generally speaking, students with an initial higher average dedicate more time to study. This is associated with a greater perception of a capacity to self-regulate learning, as well as with a perception of usefulness and a greater use of self-regulated learning strategies, which in turn affects later academic performance.