Abstract: Self-regulated learning (SRL) is one of the most investigated topics in education and psychology. While most studies focused on the SRL in primary, middle and high school students, little was known about the SRL in college students. Since SRL is the major learning type in college students, understanding the modulating effects of SRL will be of a great help to improve the SRL ability in college students. Existing studies have being focused on how the factors of self-concept, learning attribution and adjustment to learning environment affect SRL in primary, middle and high school students, but no college students. In the context of the social cognitive theory (Zimmerman, 1989), the present study explore the modulating pattern of these factors using the structural equation modeling.
A total of 501 students (248 male and 253 female) from four universities in Guangdong Province were enrolled. Participants filled out four validated questionnaires in classroom, including Self-Regulated Learning Scale (SRLS), Self-Concept Scale (SCS), Test about Learning Adjustment of Undergraduate (TLAU) and Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale (MMCS). It took about 40 minutes to complete the questionnaires. The correlations among factors were calculated with SPSS 12.0 and the structure models among these factors were analyzed with LISREL 8.72. In the analysis of structural equation modeling, two models were constructed; one for the hypothetical model and the other for the competing model.
The results showed that better self-concept and better ability to adjust to learning environment were associated with better SRL performance, while external learning attribution such as attributing success and failure to situation and fortunate was associated with worse SRL. Furthermore, the analysis of structural equation modeling showed that learning attribution has a directly impact on self-regulated learning, and the ability to adjust to learning environment has an indirect influence on SRL through learning attribution. In addition, a direct impact from self-concept and an indirect impact from self-concept on SRL through adjustment to learning environment and learning attribution were observed.
In line with the social cognitive theory, these findings demonstrated that different factors such as self-concept, adjustment to learning environment and learning attribution have significant impact on SRL. As a motivation system, self-concept not only has direct impacts on college students’ SRL, but also impacts on their learning attribution and adjustment to learning environment, which in turn initiate an impact on their SRL. These findings suggest that in order to improve the SRL performance in college students, it is crucial to establish their positive self-concept, change their irrational learning attribution and provide them with positive learning environment.

Key words: college students, self-regulated learning (SRL), self-concept, adjustment to learning environment, learning attribution