Achievement goal theory is an important framework to understand students' achievement goals, motivation, and engagement in academic situations and to study teachers' instructional practices. There has been a debate about whether optimal motivation involves the pursuit of mastery goals only (i.e., mastery goal perspective) or the combined pursuit of mastery and performance-approach goals (i.e., multiple goal perspective; Barron & Harackiewicz, 2001, 2003). In the present correlational research we tested these two goal perspectives in two Peruvian samples of high school students (Sample 1: N = 1505; Sample 2: N = 551) and further examined whether students in classes, in which teachers were perceived to promote mastery goals only or performance-approach goals, would display the most optimal learning pattern. After controlling for learners' performance-avoidance goal pursuit, results provided only slim evidence for the additive goal perspective, as the effects of students' pursuit of mastery goals were more robust and consistent across both samples and outcomes (i.e., learning strategies and math grades). Along similar lines, at the class level, perceived teacher-promoted mastery goals positively predicted deep-level learning strategies, while class-level perceived teacher-promoted performance-avoidance goals related to lower academic achievement. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Objective Although perceived need-supportive and need-thwarting coaching have received considerable attention, the question whether coach behavior fluctuates from game to game, with resulting associations with players’ moral behavior has not been examined. Design and method A Belgian sample of soccer players (N = 197; M = 26.57) was followed during five competition games, with players completing measures both prior to and following each game assessing, pre-game and on-game perceived coaching as well as athletes’ moral behavior. Results Results of multilevel analyses indicated that there exists substantial variation in perceived need-thwarting and need-supportive coaching behavior from game to game. The game-to-game variation in perceived pre-game need-thwarting coaching behavior related positively to variation in the adoption of an objectifying stance, which, in turn, related to variation in antisocial behavior oriented towards the opponent, the referee, and even their own teammates. Variation in perceived on-game need-supportive and need-thwarting coaching behavior yielded an additional relation to team-related moral outcomes. Finally, supplementary analysis indicated that these effects also held for an objective marker of moral functioning (i.e., number of yellow cards) and that players’ level of competition-contingent pay related to their antisocial behavior via an objectifying stance. Conclusion The discussion highlights the fluctuating and dynamic nature of motivating coaching behavior, and its association with players’ moral functioning.

Research has shown that frequent, intense, and poorly resolved conflict between parents relates to adolescents’ adjustment problems but the mechanisms that explain such a link have not been fully uncovered. In this prospective study, we relied on the spillover hypothesis and investigated through an integrated multi-informant model whether maternal psychological control would account for the associations between interparental conflict and adolescents’ relational aggression and loneliness. Participants were 527 Turkish adolescents (M age = 14.36 years, SD = 0.33) and 307 mothers (M age = 41.18 years, SD = 4.47). Analyses through structural equation modeling indicated that interparental conflict (as assessed by both the adolescents and their mothers) related positively to maternal psychological control (as assessed again by both of them) which in turn predicted adolescent-reported relational aggression and loneliness, 8 months later. These findings are in line with the spillover hypothesis and show that dysfunctional relationships between parents are related to poor parenting practices and in turn to adolescents’ maladjustment.

AbstractObjective Although perceived need-supportive and need-thwarting coaching have received considerable attention, the question whether coach behavior fluctuates from game to game, with resulting associations with players’ moral behavior has not been examined. Design and method A Belgian sample of soccer players (N = 197; M = 26.57) was followed during five competition games, with players completing measures both prior to and following each game assessing, pre-game and on-game perceived coaching as well as athletes’ moral behavior. Results Results of multilevel analyses indicated that there exists substantial variation in perceived need-thwarting and need-supportive coaching behavior from game to game. The game-to-game variation in perceived pre-game need-thwarting coaching behavior related positively to variation in the adoption of an objectifying stance, which, in turn, related to variation in antisocial behavior oriented towards the opponent, the referee, and even their own teammates. Variation in perceived on-game need-supportive and need-thwarting coaching behavior yielded an additional relation to team-related moral outcomes. Finally, supplementary analysis indicated that these effects also held for an objective marker of moral functioning (i.e., number of yellow cards) and that players’ level of competition-contingent pay related to their antisocial behavior via an objectifying stance. Conclusion The discussion highlights the fluctuating and dynamic nature of motivating coaching behavior, and its association with players’ moral functioning.

Research on students’ motivation has mainly focused on interpersonal differences rather than on the ongoing, intrapersonal dynamics that forge students’ everyday life. In this five-month longitudinal (diary) study, we recruited a sample of 179 high school students from Greece (35.8% males; Mage = 16.27; SD = 1.02) to investigate through multilevel analyses the ongoing dynamics of students’ motivation. We did so by examining the relation between autonomous functioning and aspects of study regulation (namely, study efforts and procrastination) and well-being (namely, subjective vitality and depressive feelings). After controlling for perceived competence, we found week-to-week autonomous functioning to relate positively to study efforts and subjective vitality and negatively to procrastination and depressive feelings. Interestingly, implicit theories of ability - the degree to which one believes that ability is fixed or amenable - were found to moderate the week-to-week relations of autonomous functioning to study efforts and homework procrastination. In particular, autonomous functioning co-varied positively to study efforts and negatively to homework procrastination only among students who believed that ability is malleable. Also, beliefs that ability is fixed predicted poorer grades, lower mean levels of study efforts, and higher homework procrastination. The results underscore the necessity of taking a more dynamic view when studying motivational phenomena and the importance of jointly considering the implicit theory framework and self-determination theory.