Many studies have assessed students’ motivation through surveys, but only a few studies systematically investigated through students’ own words the reasons and aims of their achievement striving. In the present study, we rely on the Goal Complex Perspective (Sommet and Elliot in J Educ Psychol 109(8):1141–1162, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000199; Vansteenkiste et al. in Educ Psychol 49(3):153–174, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2014.928598) to uncover qualitative differences in achievement motivation. Content analysis of 1303 statements made by 597 Greek secondary students revealed (i) more autonomous motivation than controlled motivation statements, (ii) spontaneously generated statements of mastery-learning and outcome goals but rarely of performance-normative goals, (iii) mastery-learning goals being coupled with both autonomous and controlled motivation, providing ecological support for the conceptualization of mastery goal complexes. Logistic regression analyses verified our classification, as students’ statements were predicted by corresponding types of motivation assessed by close, Likert-type questions. These findings, which align with the Goal Complex Perspective, are discussed in terms of the operational definition of autonomous and controlled motivation and achievement goals.

Research has shown that teachers’ autonomy support and provision of structure relate to students’ agentic and behavioral engagement. Moreover, agentic engagement elicits higher teacher autonomy support. In the present 5-week diary study, we investigated the dynamic nature of this interplay between teachers and students through their cross-assessment of students’ agentic and behavioral engagement. We also considered the week-to-week student-reported teacher autonomy support and provision of structure as well as two student personal characteristics — proactive personality and situational autonomous versus controlled motivation. Two hundred fifty-seven Turkish middle school students and their teachers from 13 classes participated in the study. Multilevel analyses showed that students’ week-to-week perceived autonomy support and initial level of autonomous motivation positively predicted week-to-week agentic engagement (teacher- and student-reported). Students’ week-to-week perceived structure positively predicted week-to-week agentic and behavioral engagement (student-, but not teacher-, reported). These findings indicate the interplay between students’ situational engagement and teachers’ situational motivating style (i.e., autonomy support and provision of structure). They also suggest greater predictive power for students’ situational motivation over the personal trait of proactive personality. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

In this study, we aimed to investigate the different routes through which perceived goal structures, and in turn mastery-approach and performance-approach goals in mathematics, predict subsequent academic performance. Path analyses with a sample of Turkish adolescents (N = 369; 49.1% males; M-age = 16.67 years, SD = 1.85) revealed two distinct paths. After controlling for mid-year grades, we found perceived mastery goal structures to relate (positively) to mastery-approach goals, which in turn positively predicted end-year grades through challenge seeking. In contrast, perceived performance goal structures related positively to both performance approach and performance-avoidance goals with the former directly predicting higher end-year grades, and the latter being related negatively to challenge seeking. These findings imply that there may exist different paths that can predict academic performance.

Performance at school is affected not only by students' achievement goals but also by emotional exchanges among classmates and their teacher. In this study, we investigated relationships between students' achievement goals and emotion perception ability and class affect and performance. Participants were 949 Greek adolescent students in 49 classes and their Greek language and mathematics teachers. Results from multilevel analyses indicated that students' mastery-approach and performance-approach goals were positively related to positive affect whereas performance-avoidance goals were negatively related to positive affect. At class-level, relationships between achievement goals and affect were moderated by students' emotion perception ability. These findings highlight the importance of emotion abilities and their role in motivational processes for class-level outcomes.

Ιn a sample of Turkish adolescents (N = 1614), we investigated whether pursuing social demonstration-approach goals (to attain popularity), next to social development goals (to cultivate meaningful relationships), explains differences in need satisfaction and frustration and coping. Cluster analysis showed that students who favored social development over social demonstration-approach goals reported less need frustration and defensive coping than students who favored both goals. These results were replicated with a prospective analysis with part of the initial sample (N = 425) as students who endorsed both goals reported more defensive coping five months later than students who mainly favored social development goals over social demonstration-approach goals.

The authors investigated the relation between social achievement goals (A. M. Ryan & S. S. Shim, 2006) and aspects of students' socio-emotional adjustment in a sample of elementary school students. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that after controlling for levels of prosocial skills, a social development goal was positively related to perceived belongingness and negatively related to perceptions of loneliness at school. In contrast, a social demonstration-avoid goal was positively associated with perceptions of loneliness, whereas a social demonstration-approach goal was negatively associated with peer acceptance. Last, prosocial skills were positively related to students' peer acceptance, which was negatively associated with feelings of loneliness. The results and their implications on students' school adjustment are discussed within the social achievement goal framework.