This study tested a proposed model consisting of mathematics anxiety, mathematics self-efficacy, and implicit theories of intelligence in predicting mathematics and science career interest in middle school students, while controlling for student math level. One hundred fifty-two seventh-grade students in a middle school in the USA participated in…

Background: Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the factors related to science achievement. In these studies, the classroom goal structure perceptions, engagement, and self-efficacy of the students have emerged as important factors to be examined in relation to students' science achievement. Purpose: This study examines the…

The study examined the role of motivation in students' performance and engagement in elementary and middle school physical education. Cross-lagged relationships between performance and engagement were investigated across Grades 6-9. A total of 763 (365 girls, 398 boys) Finnish school students (11- to 12-year old) were followed across three years.…

During the transition from primary to secondary school, students typically experience a new social environment, moving from primary school with small intact classes throughout the day with one main teacher, to a larger secondary school with teachers, classrooms and often classmates changing throughout the day. During this time, students report a…

Background: Peer victimization is associated with increased internalizing problems and reduced school adjustment. Research into the main effect and the buffering effect of social support on these internalizing problems has produced inconsistent findings, and none has tested the buffering effect of social support on school adjustment. Moreover,…

The role of perceived school goal structures and parent goals in predicting adolescents' goal orientations and their behavioral and emotional engagement in the classroom was examined in the present study. Surveys were given to a sample of 271 seventh- and ninth-grade students. Path analyses showed that (a) perceived school mastery goal structures…

Background: Motivational interference is defined as the amount of impairment in a target activity due to the incentives of a non-chosen attractive alternative. The amount to which pupils experience motivational interference while studying or while performing a leisure activity in a school-leisure conflict situation is seen as depending on the…

The effect of Chinese students' perceived test value on test performance was examined with motivational and metacognitive regulation during test preparation as mediating constructs. Participants were 7th (N = 326) and 11th graders (N = 391) in China. Two path models were examined. Students' perceived test value had a significant direct effect on…

This study aims to examine the relationships between social withdrawal, peer rejection and peer victimization among Taiwanese middle school students as well as to explore the applicability of relevant models in an East Asia culture context. The sample of this study consists of 219 7th grade students from middle schools in Taiwan. Data from…

This study examined the structure of middle school students' general epistemological beliefs and domain-specific mathematical problem-solving beliefs by asking whether the 2 belief systems are related and whether they predict students' academic performance. Over 1,200 seventh- and eighth-grade students completed an Epistemological Questionnaire,…