This three-wave longitudinal study aimed to investigate whether the relationship between self-control and academic achievement, through mastery goals, was conditional on the nature of the teacher-student relationships. A total of 852 junior school students in China completed questionnaires about self-control, mastery goals, and teacher-student…

Knowledge-in-Use, i.e., the ability to apply what one has learned, is a major goal of education and involves the ability to transfer one's knowledge. While some general principles of knowledge transfer have been revealed, the literature is full of inconclusive results and it remains hard to predict successful transfer. However, research into…

It is generally accepted and well documented that mastery goal orientation positively affects students' learning behavior. However, less is known about this association in self-directed learning during adolescence, which additionally promotes student's positive emotions. This study tested whether positive emotions mediate the association between…

This study evaluated the relations between adolescents' school and career future time perspective and their academic-related outcomes (i.e. grades, learning problems, and task orientation) and whether mastery goals are mediators of these relations. Romanian adolescents (N = 229, 59% girls) completed questionnaires assessing future orientation,…

Mastery goal structures, which communicate value for developing deeper understanding, are an important classroom support for student motivation and engagement, especially in the context of science learning aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. Prior research has identified key dimensions of goal structures, but a more nuanced…

The current study validated the Homework Goal Orientation Scale (HGOS) for secondary school students. Results revealed that HGOS consisted of two distinct but related subscales: mastery-approach and performance-approach. Given satisfactory measurement invariance, the latent mean differences were then examined across gender (males vs. females) and…

The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine seeking help from teachers as a mechanism mediating the relationship between achievement goals adopted by students early in the school year and their degree of behavioral and cognitive engagement in academic work almost 2 years later. A sample of 456 French Canadian students (215 boys; 240 girls;…

This study examined the cross-lagged relationships between students' autonomous motivations (intrinsic motivation and identified regulations) and approach goals (mastery and performance) in school. The sample included 449 students (52% girls) in Grades 7 and 8 (secondary 1 and 2). Results showed that intrinsic motivation (IM) positively predicted…

Sexualized gender stereotypes (SGS) are commonly endorsed by adolescent girls. These stereotypes include the notion that girls can enhance their social status by prioritizing their sexualized attractiveness, which necessitates downplaying other traits such as intelligence. According to the stereotype emulation hypothesis, a girl will be more…

Based on the interplay between achievement goals theory and social comparison theory, our study focused on how achievement goals relate to subjective well-being in the school context in Chinese adolescents. Specifically, we addressed a theoretical model that specified that academic social comparisons and self-esteem would serve as mediators in the…

Previous cross-national studies on social motivation among secondary students from individualistic societies such as Germany and Canada found four different motivation types (MT) varying in class size: (a) teacher-dependent MT, (b) peer-dependent MT, (c) teacher- and peer-dependent MT, and (d) teacher- and peer-independent MT. The current…

Sexualized gender stereotypes (SGS) include the belief that girls should singularly prioritize their sexualized attractiveness for the attention and approval of boys. By elementary school, boys and girls perceive girls' sexualized attractiveness to be incompatible with intelligence and competence. In the current 2-year study, we examined whether…

Achievement goal orientations and self-regulated learning have become central constructs in education research, with both contributing significantly towards students' academic success. However, very little research has focused on students' social achievement goals, that is their social reasons for wanting to do well in school. The aim of the…

Research has suggested mixed results regarding the relations between dimensions of ethnic-racial identity (ERI) and academic outcomes. Furthermore, little scholarship has explored the mechanisms that underlie these relations. In the current study, we investigated the longitudinal relations of 2 dimensions of ERI (embedded achievement, and ethnic…

By analyzing the open-ended reasons for studying generated by 3 different groups of Korean middle school students, we aimed to provide partial answers to current issues in achievement goal research that are difficult to resolve solely with the use of survey ratings. We categorized student responses using the achievement goal frameworks of Midgley…