Within-grade changes in Korean girls' motivation and perceptions of the learning environment across domains and achievement levels.

This study tested whether students' motivation and perceptions of the learning environment changed significantly within the school year. Korean high school girls' (N = 375) perceptions of the performance goal structures in the environment increased significantly throughout the school year. The girls' personal achievement goals and task value demonstrated few significant within-grade changes, but their self-efficacy fluctuated significantly around examinations. Motivational beliefs were more stable than were perceptions of the environment. Nevertheless, the modified perceptions of the learning environment explained changes in motivation, justifying continued efforts to create a motivationally adaptive environment. Construct relations were consistent across different academic contexts. There was no evidence that low-achieving girls responded more negatively to the classroom performance goals than did their better-achieving peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of the school social context across the transition to middle school: Heightened sensitivity among Latino students?

The current study was designed to examine the ways in which perceived behavioral norms among grade mates and school social climate vary across the transition to middle school. The main goals of the study were to test whether Latino students may be more sensitive to the school social climate than White students and whether perceived behavioral norms might help explain this association. Cross-sectional analyses comparing Latino and White students (N = 383) revealed that perceptions of school social climate and behavioral norms became more negative across the middle school transition. Multiple regression analysis showed that school climate perceptions predicted self-reported academic compliance and rule breaking only for Latino students. Mediational analysis revealed that the association between perceived climate and self-reported rule breaking was partially accounted for by perceptions of behavioral norms for rule breaking only among Latino students. Taken together, the results suggest that compared with White students, Latino students are more sensitive to school social climate as it relates to their school conduct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental behaviors and adolescents' achievement goals at the beginning of middle school: Emotional problems as potential mediators.

Recent literature on the determinants of academic motivation has shown that parenting and emotions are central elements in understanding students' achievement goals. The authors of this study set out to examine the predictive relationship between parental behaviors during the last year of elementary school and adolescents' achievement goals at the end of their first year of middle school. Manifestations of anxiety and depression in Grade 6 were examined as explanatory mechanisms for this relationship. A total of 498 early adolescents participated in the study. The results of structural equation modeling analyses demonstrated that parental involvement predicted mastery goals, whereas parental control predicted performance goals among these adolescents. This relationship was mediated by the adolescents' symptoms of anxiety. These results underscore the need for educators and clinicians to consider parental behaviors and emotional problems among elementary school students when seeking to understand the behaviors and learning strategies adopted by these students in middle school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescents' motivation toward the environment: Age-related trends and correlates.

From a self-determination perspective, we attempted to replicate previous findings suggesting that higher autonomous environmental motivation (i.e., acting out of choice and pleasure) is associated with the frequency of environmental behaviours such as recycling, paper reuse, and energy conservation. We also compared students' level of autonomous environmental motivation with their level of autonomous academic motivation. We then examined age effects on autonomous environmental motivation and compared them to age effects on autonomous academic motivation. A total of 200 high school students grouped into 5 age cohorts filled out a questionnaire. Results showed that (1) adolescents' autonomous environmental motivation was associated with more frequent environmental behaviours, (2) autonomous motivation was higher in the environmental than the school domain, and (3) autonomous environmental motivation was higher in older than younger students, whereas autonomous motivation toward school was equivalent across age groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in Achievement Goal Orientations, Perceived Academic Competence, and Grades across the Transition to Middle-Level Schools

Goal orientation theory was used to examine changes in student motivation during the transition from elementary to middle school. Surveys were given to 341 students in the fifth grade in elementary and again in sixth grade in middle school. Students were more oriented to task goals (wanting to improve their competency), perceived a greater emphasis on task goals during instruction, and felt more academically competent in fifth grade in elementary school than in sixth grade in middle school. They perceived a greater emphasis on performance goals (an emphasis on relative ability and right answers) in middle school than in elementary school. Several interactions emerged between year (fifth grade, sixth grade), and both student level of ability (higher, lower, based on standardized achievement tests) and subject domain (math, English).     

Motivational dynamics of children's academic help-seeking and concealment.

Models of self-regulated learning and of children's coping both consider help-seeking an adaptive response to academic problems, yet students do not always seek help when it is needed, and help-seeking generally declines across early adolescence. A study of 765 children in elementary and middle school (Grades 3-6) during fall and spring of the same school year investigated whether motivational resources predicted help-seeking and whether losses in motivational supports across the middle school transition mirrored age declines. As predicted, 3 motivational self-perceptions were tightly correlated with coping in fall and spring; relatedness was the primary predictor of increases in help-seeking, whereas a sense of incompetence predicted increases in concealment. Teacher reports of motivational support also predicted changes in student coping and were mediated by children's self-perceptions. Analyses of reciprocal effects of students' help-seeking and concealment on changes in teacher support corroborated hypothesized cycles in which motivationally "rich" children, by constructively seeking help, become "richer," whereas motivationally "poor" children, by concealing their difficulties, become "poorer." Age differences in children's motivational resources across the transition to middle school paralleled age differences in help-seeking and concealment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Profils de buts d’apprentissage et caractéristiques personnelles des élèves au début du secondaire.

The present study pursued two goals. The first goal was to explore the presence of students’ learning goals profiles during the beginning of middle school, using cluster analyses procedure. The second goal was to examine whether these profiles are related to academic (motivation, feeling of competence, and achievement) and emotional (anxiety and depression) characteristics. Three hundred ten adolescents participated in this study. Results of cluster analyses showed the presence of different learning goals profiles (high mastery, mixed, mastery-avoidance, and low engaged). Furthermore, results indicated that students in high mastery and mixed profiles are better adapted than students in mastery-avoidance and low engaged profiles, particularly in regard of academic characteristics. On the whole, these findings suggest that considering heterogeneous profiles of learning goals at the beginning of middle school appears quite useful to better understanding students’ academic and emotional characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social relationships and motivation in middle school: The role of parents, teachers, and peers.

Adolescents' supportive relationships with parents, teachers, and peers were examined in relation to motivation at school (school- and class-related interest, academic goal orientations, and social goal pursuit). On the basis of 167 sixth-grade students, relations of perceived support from parents, teachers, and peers to student motivation differed depending on the source of support and motivational outcome: Peer support was a positive predictor of prosocial goal pursuit, teacher support was a positive predictor of both types of interest and of social responsibility goal pursuit, and parent support was a positive predictor of school-related interest and goal orientations. Perceived support from parents and peers also was related to interest in school indirectly by way of negative relations with emotional distress. Pursuit of social responsibility goals and school- and class-related interest in 6th grade partly explained positive relations between social support in 6th grade and classroom grades 1 year later. Continued research on the social origins of classroom motivation in early adolescence is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Academic and social motives and drinking behavior.

This longitudinal study of 1,447 first-time college students tested separate time-varying covariate models of the relations between academic and social motives/behaviors and alcohol use and related problems from senior year of high school through the end of the second year in college. Structural equation models identified small but significant inverse relations between academic motives/behaviors and alcohol use across all time points, with relations of somewhat larger magnitude between academic motives/behaviors and alcohol-related problems across all semesters other than senior year in high school. At all time points, there were much larger positive relations between social motives/behaviors and alcohol use across all semesters, with smaller but significant relations between social motives/behaviors and alcohol-related problems. Multi-group models found considerable consistency in the relations between motives/behaviors and alcohol-related outcomes across gender, race/ethnicity, and family history of alcohol problems, although academic motives/behaviors played a stronger protective role for women, and social motives were a more robust risk factor for Caucasian and Latino students and individuals with a positive family history of alcohol problems. Implications for alcohol prevention efforts among college students are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensions of achievement motivation in schoolwork and sport.

Both sport and academic work play large roles in school life, yet there is little comparative evidence on the nature or generality of achievement motivation across these domains. In this study, beliefs about the causes of success in school and sport of 207 high school students were found to be related in a logical fashion to their personal goals. The ego-involved goal of superiority was associated with the belief that success requires high ability, whereas task orientation (the goal of gaining knowledge) was associated with beliefs that success requires interest, effort, and collaboration with peers. These goal–belief dimensions, or theories about success, cut across sport and schoolwork. However, little cross-domain generality was found for perceptions of ability and intrinsic satisfaction. Intrinsic satisfaction in sport primarily related to perceived ability in that setting. Task orientation, not perceived ability, was the major predictor of satisfaction in schoolwork. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age appropriateness and motivation, engagement, and performance in high school: Effects of age within cohort, grade retention, and delayed school entry.

The present study examined the relative salience of age within cohort, grade retention, and delayed school entry (3 dimensions of age appropriateness) in 3,684 high school students' academic motivation, engagement, and performance. Structural equation modeling revealed that after the effects of demographic characteristics and grade retention were taken into account, little significant variance was explained by the linear effects of age within cohort. However, subsequent modeling incorporating nonlinear effects showed that the markedly older-for-cohort students (i.e., over the "standard" 12-month age range for a given cohort) and delayed-entry students (i.e., academic "red shirts") experienced some academic disadvantage in motivation, engagement, and performance while the age-appropriate students (particularly the younger ones) fared best. Over and above demographic and age-within-cohort effects, the effects of grade retention were consistently negative. Taken together, data suggest that there appear to be little or no motivation, engagement, or performance advantages to being markedly older-for-cohort, having delayed-entry status, or being retained in a grade. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friendships in Middle School: Influences on Motivation and School Adjustment.

In this 2-year longitudinal study (n=242), the authors examined relations of having a reciprocated friend and characteristics of a reciprocated friend to students' social and academic adjustment to middle school. With respect to having a friend, 6th-grade students without friends showed lower levels of prosocial behavior, academic achievement, and emotional distress than did students with reciprocated friendships. Not having a friend in 6th grade also was related to emotional distress 2 years later. Evidence that motivational processes mediate relations between friends' and individuals' prosocial behavior was obtained. For students with reciprocated friendships (n=173). friends' prosocial behavior predicted change in individuals' prosocial behavior in 8th grade by way of changes in goals to behave prosocially. Implications for studying friendship influence in middle school are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of the school psychological environment and early adolescents' psychological and behavioral functioning in school: The mediating role of goals and belonging.

In a sample of 296 8th-grade middle school students, the authors examined the role of personal achievement goals and feelings of school belonging in mediating the relation between perceptions of the school psychological environment and school-related beliefs, affect, and achievement. Sequential regression analyses indicated that perceiving a task goal structure in middle school was positively related to academic self-efficacy and that this relation was mediated through personal task goals. Perceiving an ability goal structure was related to academic self-consciousness and this relation was mediated through personal relative ability goals. Perceiving positive teacher-student relationships predicted positive school-related affect and this relation was mediated through feelings of school belonging. Feelings of academic efficacy and school belonging in turn were positively related to final-semester academic grades. Results are discussed in relation to current middle school reform efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of global self-worth and academic performance among regular education, learning disabled, and continuation high school students

While academic performance and achievement motivation among elementary school students have received considerable attention, far less is known with respect to adolescents. The primary purpose of this project was to examine the ability of measures of perceived competence, control, and autonomy support to predict self-worth and academic performance with a group of regular education, learning disabled, and continuation high school students. Stepwise regression analyses indicated that indices of perceived competence, control, and autonomy support were significant predictors of self-worth and grade point average. Additionally, school status (i.e., regular education and continuation) and a depression variable were significant predictors in the regression model for academic performance. The results highlight the need for continued empirical investigation into issues surrounding the academic performance and achievement motivation of adolescents.     

Examining the reciprocal relation between academic motivation and substance use: effects of family relationships, self-esteem, and general deviance

The present study examined the reciprocal relation between academic motivation and cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use across four annual assessments during adolescence. Data were obtained from 435 adolescents, 13 to 17 years of age at the first assessment, and their mothers. The results of generalized estimating equations (GEE) analysis suggested inverse reciprocal relations across time between academic motivation and both cigarette and marijuana use. Reciprocal relations between academic motivation and alcohol use were not found, possibly due to the normative use of this substance. The examination of mediational mechanisms, including general deviance, self-esteem and family relationships, suggested that the relation between marijuana use and, for younger adolescents, cigarette use and academic motivation is not direct but is indirect, mediated through the general deviance of the adolescent. Deviance, self-esteem, and, for the youngest adolescents, family relationships mediated the relation between academic motivation and subsequent marijuana use.     

Relations among conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and procedural flexibility in two samples differing in prior knowledge.

Competence in many domains rests on children developing conceptual and procedural knowledge, as well as procedural flexibility. However, research on the developmental relations between these different types of knowledge has yielded unclear results, in part because little attention has been paid to the validity of the measures or to the effects of prior knowledge on the relations. To overcome these problems, we modeled the three constructs in the domain of equation solving as latent factors and tested (a) whether the predictive relations between conceptual and procedural knowledge were bidirectional, (b) whether these interrelations were moderated by prior knowledge, and (c) how both constructs contributed to procedural flexibility. We analyzed data from 2 measurement points each from two samples (Ns = 228 and 304) of middle school students who differed in prior knowledge. Conceptual and procedural knowledge had stable bidirectional relations that were not moderated by prior knowledge. Both kinds of knowledge contributed independently to procedural flexibility. The results demonstrate how changes in complex knowledge structures contribute to competence development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing models of school learning: Effects of quality of instruction, motivation, academic coursework, and homework on academic achievement.

Tested the influence of ability, time, quality of instruction, motivation, and academic coursework on students' achievement, controlling for relevant background variables. Structural equation models were analyzed with longitudinal data from a national sample of 25,875 high school students. Intellectual ability and academic coursework had direct effects on achievement, and homework had a smaller direct effect. The indirect effects of quality of instruction and motivation were stronger than their direct effects; quality affected motivation, which affected coursework. Supplemental analyses were consistent with the initial findings. Results support these variables as influences on school learning, and support the theories from which the variables were derived. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent classroom goals, standards for performance, and academic achievement: An interactionist perspective.

In the 1st study, correlational results from 203 high school students suggest that achievement, as indexed by grade point average (GPA), is positively related to efforts to be a successful student, be dependable and responsible, understand things, do one's very best, and get things done on time, and negatively related to trying to have fun. Student GPAs were also related to the number of goals and the unique sets of goals that students try to achieve. In the 2nd study, with a subsample of 107 students, the motivational characteristics of students that predicted GPAs did not predict Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores. Findings of the 1st study suggest the potential relevance of motivation to achieve socially prescribed as well as cognitive outcomes for explaining academic performance in the classroom. The importance of studying motivation–performance relationships within context is suggested by the fact that the findings of Study 1 were not replicated when nonclassroom evaluations of performance were used as indices of academic achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)