Navigating the academic road with an empty tank? The impact of financial and time scarcity mindsets on students’ sense of agency

Abstract

The goal of the study is to investigate the relationships between university students' scarcity mindset – defined as the feeling of not having enough resources – and their sense of agency, including self-perceived competence, psychological need satisfaction, and beliefs about intelligence. Employing a comprehensive sample of 507 university students from Germany, the study utilizes latent structural equation modeling to analyze whether, and to what extent, time and financial scarcity mindsets are related to various motivational outcomes. The findings reveal that students experiencing greater financial and time scarcity tend to have lower academic self-concept and self-efficacy, as well as lower satisfaction with psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. However, there was no consistent empirical support suggesting the relationship between financial/time scarcity mindsets and beliefs about intelligence. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the scarcity mindset within higher education, extending scarcity mindset theory beyond cognitive functions to include motivational outcomes.