AUTHOR=Erentaitė Rasa , Vosylis Rimantas , Sevalneva Daiva , Melnikė Eglė , Raižienė Saulė , Daukantaitė Daiva 

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.820247

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.820247

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>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 (<italic>N</italic><sub>1</sub> = 998, <italic>N</italic><sub>2</sub> = 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.</p>