Anecdotal evidence suggests an increase in entitled attitudes and behaviors of youth in school and college settings. Using
a newly developed scale to assess “academic entitlement” (AE), a construct that includes expectations of high grades for modest
effort and demanding attitudes towards teachers, this research is the first to investigate the phenomenon systematically.
In two separate samples of ethnically diverse college students comprised largely of East and Southeast Asian American, followed
by Caucasians, Latinos, and other groups (total
N = 839, age range 18–25 years), we examined the personality, parenting, and motivational correlates of AE. AE was most strongly
related to exploitive attitudes towards others and moderately related to an overall sense of entitlement and to narcissism.
Students who reported more academically entitled attitudes perceived their parents as exerting achievement pressure marked
by social comparison with other youth and materially rewarding good grades, scored higher than their peers in achievement
anxiety and extrinsic motivation, and engaged in more academic dishonesty. AE was not significantly associated with GPA.
Keywords Sense of entitlement - Academic entitlement - Parenting processes - Socially comparative achievement pressure - Achievement anxiety - Student–teacher relationships - Academic dishonesty