Xie, K., Vongkulluksn, V.W., Cheng, S.L., & Jiang, Z. (2022). Examining high-school students’ motivation change through a person-centered approach. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(1), 89-107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000507 (SSCI Journal; Impact Factor: 5.805)
Abstract: Students’ academic motivation is malleable in nature and can change over time. Variable-centered research can detect general changes in motivational variables. Recent studies have shown that learning behaviors are driven by a combination of motivations, resulting in distinct motivational profiles. Person-centered studies can detect nuanced changes in students’ motivation profile memberships. Examining the nature of profile shifts could be the key to support long-term development of academic motivation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how high-school students’ academic motivational profiles changed across 2 academic years and how school belongingness and achievement feedback influenced their motivation profile memberships. Latent transition analysis of responses from 1,670 high-school students revealed 6 motivational profiles: amotivated, externally regulated, balanced demotivated, moderately motivated, balanced motivated, and autonomously motivated. Pairwise logistic regression results showed that high-school students’ sense of school belongingness and their prior achievement level significantly predicted their motivation profile membership in the 2nd year, controlling for their 1st-year membership.