Paper Title
Does a Values-Affirmation Intervention Affect Student Performance?

Abstract
The current research examined several factors that may contribute to college students’ academic performance and retention from six introductory sociology classes that were taken by freshmen and sophomore. A total of 214 students completed one online survey mid-September, which investigates student’s demographic, family, school related backgrounds, and variables with regard to their psychological well-beings; and one written value affirmation written survey was given in classrooms in the late October of the same semester. With the inclusion of several control variables such as gender, race, school attendance, substance use, and other demographic as well as sociological factors, the findings suggest that student’s academic performance was positively related to the intervention, class attendance, parental household income, expectation of educational attainment, and financial aids. Student’ short term retention (taking classes in the following semester) was positively related to prior semester GPA, financial aids and gender. The value intervention has no direct correlation with the retention. The implications of the findings were further discussed in the conclusion. Index Terms: GPA, retention, value affirmation, financial aids, and college students