Profiles of Achievement Motivation and Performance in Middle School: Links to Student Background and Perceived Classroom Climate

Rasa Erentaitė; Rimantas Vosylis; Daiva Sevalneva; Eglė Melnikė; Saulė Raižienė; Daiva Daukantaitė

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.820247

Profiles of Achievement Motivation and Performance in Middle School: Links to Student Background and Perceived Classroom Climate

Front Psychol. 2022 May 30:13:820247. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.820247. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Rasa Erentaitė¹, Rimantas Vosylis^{1

2}, Daiva Sevalneva¹, Eglė Melnikė¹, Saulė Raižienė^{1

3}, Daiva Daukantaitė⁴

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania.
² Institute of Psychology, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
³ Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

Abstract

Achievement motivation and performance at school are reciprocally related, however, empirical studies report a large variability of findings and, in some cases, weaker than expected associations between these constructs. To further our understanding of the motivation-performance link, we examined typical patterns of motivation and performance and their correlates, in two cohorts of 8th-grade students (N ₁ = 998, N ₂ = 441). As expected, we identified both concordant and discordant patterns of achievement motivation and performance. In two subgroups, specifically, those characterized by low motivation and low performance (34% of the sample) and those characterized by high motivation and high performance (18% of the sample), the levels of motivation were highly concordant with scores on math and reading tests. In contrast, the other two profiles-weak motivation with elevated performance (38% of all sample) and high motivation with low performance (9% of the sample) had divergent patterns of motivation and performance. The subgroups also differed on student socio-economic background, special educational needs, gender, as well as perceptions of classroom climate. Overall, our findings reveal context-dependent patterns of the relationship between aspects of achievement motivation and performance.

Keywords: academic performance; achievement motivation; classroom climate; latent profile analyses; social-economic-cultural context.