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Achievement emotions have received increasing attention in research on adolescence and young adulthood, but little is known about these emotions in the early years of schooling. Studies addressing the development of different achievement emotions and their linkages with achievement during these years are largely lacking. The present longitudinal study aimed to fill this gap by examining the development of enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety in mathematics across second to fourth grade (N = 670 German students; Mage = 8.45 years, 51.0% female at baseline) as well as relations between these emotions and children's math achievement. Students' emotions during learning and when taking tests and exams in math, school grades in math, and math achievement test scores were measured in annual assessments. Latent structural equation modeling showed that enjoyment decreased, whereas boredom and anxiety remained relatively stable across these years. Moreover, the findings from reciprocal effects models (REMs) show that emotions and achievement were reciprocally linked over time, controlling for autoregressive effects, gender, and family socioeconomic status. Enjoyment positively predicted subsequent achievement, and achievement positively predicted subsequent enjoyment. Boredom and anxiety negatively predicted subsequent achievement, and achievement negatively predicted subsequent boredom and anxiety. The results were consistent across waves and achievement indicators and highlight the need to attend to students' achievement emotions during the early years of schooling. Directions for future research and implications for educational practice are discussed. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: This longitudinal study investigated how elementary school students' emotions toward math develop from Year 2 to 4 and how they relate to students' math performance. Anxiety and boredom remained at the same levels during this time, but enjoyment of math decreased. Emotions and math performance were linked over the years; enjoyment predicted improved performance, and anxiety and boredom predicted reduced performance, from one year to the next. High performance, in turn, predicted more enjoyment, and poor performance predicted anxiety and boredom. Thus, the findings suggest that providing students with opportunities for success will improve their emotions toward the subject, which will ultimately enhance their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions that considers valence, arousal, and object focus as core features of these emotions. By distinguishing between positive and negative emotions (valence), activating and deactivating emotions (arousal), and activity emotions, prospective outcome emotions, and retrospective outcome emotions (object focus), the taxonomy has a 2 × 2 × 3 structure representing 12 groups of achievement emotions. In four studies across different countries (N = 330, 235, 323, and 269 participants in Canada, the United States, Germany, and the U.K., respectively), we investigated the empirical robustness of the taxonomy in educational (Studies 1–3) and work settings (Study 4). An expanded version of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire was used to assess 12 key emotions representing the taxonomy. Consistently across the four studies, findings from multilevel facet analysis and structural equation modeling documented the importance of the three dimensions for explaining achievement emotions. In addition, based on hypotheses about relations with external variables, the findings show clear links of the emotions with important antecedents and outcomes. The Big Five personality traits, appraisals of control and value, and context perceptions were predictors of the emotions. The 12 emotions, in turn, were related to participants' use of strategies, cognitive performance, and self-reported health problems. Taken together, the findings provide robust evidence for the unique positions of different achievement emotions in the proposed taxonomy, as well as unique patterns of relations with external variables. Directions for future research and implications for policy and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on control-value theory (CVT), we examined longitudinal relations between students' control and value appraisals, three activity-related achievement emotions (enjoyment, anger, and boredom), and math achievement (N = 1,716 fifth and seventh grade students). We assessed appraisals and emotions with self-report measures of perceived competence in math, perceived value of math, and math emotions, and achievement with school grades in math. All variables were measured in each of three consecutive annual assessments. Using structural equation modeling, we tested the CVT proposition that appraisals, emotions, and achievement show reciprocal relations over time. We hypothesized that (a) control-value appraisals influence the emotions, (b) the emotions influence achievement, and (c) achievement reciprocally influences appraisals and emotions. Supporting these hypotheses, the findings show that students' perceived competence and perceived value positively predicted their subsequent enjoyment and negatively predicted their anger and boredom, controlling for prior levels of these variables, gender, and prior achievement. Students' enjoyment positively predicted subsequent math achievement; anger and boredom negatively predicted achievement. Achievement showed reciprocal positive predictive effects on subsequent perceived competence, value, and enjoyment, and negative effects on subsequent anger and boredom; the effects on enjoyment and boredom were significant from Time 1 to 2 only. As posited in CVT, the effects of achievement on the emotions were mediated by perceived competence. In sum, the findings suggest that enjoyment, anger, and boredom influence students' achievement in mathematics, and that control-value appraisals and achievement are important antecedents of these emotions. Implications for future research and educational practice are discussed. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: This study highlights the importance of students' control and value beliefs for their emotions during math learning. These emotions, in turn, impacted students' math achievement. Our findings suggest that promoting positive perceptions of control and value can be a powerful approach for fostering learners' positive emotional experiences and academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical model linking achievement and emotions is proposed. The model posits that individual achievement promotes positive achievement emotions and reduces negative achievement emotions. In contrast, group-level achievement is thought to reduce individuals’ positive emotions and increase their negative emotions. The model was tested using one cross-sectional and two longitudinal datasets on 5th to 10th grade students’ achievement emotions in mathematics (Studies 1–3: Ns = 1,610, 1,759, and 4,353, respectively). Multilevel latent structural equation modeling confirmed that individual achievement had positive predictive effects on positive emotions (enjoyment, pride) and negative predictive effects on negative emotions (anger, anxiety, shame, and hopelessness), controlling for prior achievement, autoregressive effects, reciprocal effects, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES). Class-level achievement had negative compositional effects on the positive emotions and positive compositional effects on the negative emotions. Additional analyses suggested that self-concept of ability is a possible mediator of these effects. Furthermore, there were positive compositional effects of class-level achievement on individual achievement in Study 2 but not in Study 3, indicating that negative compositional effects on emotion are not reliably counteracted by positive effects on performance. The results were robust across studies, age groups, synchronous versus longitudinal analysis, and latent-manifest versus doubly latent modeling. These findings imply that individual success drives emotional well-being, whereas placing individuals in high-achieving groups can undermine well-being. Thus, the findings challenge policy and practice decisions on achievement-contingent allocation of individuals to groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines reciprocal effects between self-concept and achievement by considering a long time span covering grades 5 through 9. Extending previous research on the reciprocal effects model (REM), this study tests (1) the assumption of developmental equilibrium as time-invariant cross-lagged paths from self-concept to achievement and from achievement to self-concept, (2) the generalizability of reciprocal relations when using school grades and standardized achievement test scores as achievement indicators and (3) the invariance of findings across secondary school achievement tracks. Math self-concept, school grades in math and math achievement test scores were measured once each school year with a representative sample of 3,425 German students. Student's gender, IQ and socioeconomic status (SES) were controlled in all analyses. The findings supported the assumption of developmental equilibrium for reciprocal effects between self-concept and achievement across time. The pattern of results was found to be invariant across students attending different achievement tracks and could be replicated when using school grades and achievement test scores in separate and in combined models. The findings of this study thus underscore the generalizability and robustness of the REM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has suggested that parents' aspirations for their children's academic attainment can have a positive influence on children's actual academic performance. Possible negative effects of parental overaspiration, however, have found little attention in the psychological literature. Employing a dualchange score model with longitudinal data from a representative sample of German school children and their parents (N = 3,530; Grades 5 to 10), we showed that parental aspiration and children's mathematical achievement were linked by positive reciprocal relations over time. Importantly, we also found that parental aspiration that exceeded their expectation (i.e., overaspiration) had negative reciprocal relations with children's mathematical achievement. These results were fairly robust after controlling for a variety of demographic and cognitive variables such as children's gender, age, intelligence, school type, and family socioeconomic status. The results were also replicated with an independent sample of U.S. parents and their children. These findings suggest that unrealistically high parental aspiration can be detrimental for children's achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical model linking boredom and academic achievement is proposed. Based on Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, the model posits that boredom and achievement reciprocally influence each other over time. Data from a longitudinal study with college students (N = 424) were used to examine the hypothesized effects. The study involved 5 assessments of students' boredom and test performance during a university course spanning an entire academic year. Structural equation modeling was used to examine effects of boredom on achievement, and vice versa. The results show that boredom had consistently negative effects on subsequent performance, and performance had consistently negative effects on subsequent boredom, while controlling for students' gender, age, interest, intrinsic motivation, and prior achievement. These results provide robust evidence for the proposed links between boredom and achievement and support systems-theoretical perspectives on the dynamics of emotions and achievement. From a broader educational perspective, the findings imply that researchers and practitioners alike should focus attention on boredom as an important, yet often overlooked, academic emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that the average values for academic interest decrease during adolescence. Looking beyond such quantitative decline, we explored qualitative change of interest in the domain of mathematics across adolescence. Study 1 was based on a longitudinal data set (annual assessments from Grade 5 to Grade 9; N = 3,193). Latent variable modeling showed that the measurement coefficients of the latent variable of interest (intercepts, structural weights, and error variances) significantly differed across time points, indicating structural changes of the construct. Study 2 was based on interviews with adolescents (Grades 5 and 9, N = 70). Cognitive validation was used to explore differences in subjective concepts of interest across age groups. As expected, there were significant age-related differences, indicating a shift from an affect-laden concept in 5th grade to a more cognitively oriented concept in 9th grade. The findings suggest that developmental research should integrate quantitative and qualitative perspectives of construct change over time and pay more attention to issues of measurement invariance and qualitative changes of constructs over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linkages of achievement-related boredom with students' appraisals and performance outcomes were examined in a series of 5 exploratory, cross-sectional, and predictive investigations. Studies 1 and 2 assessed students' boredom in a single achievement episode (i.e., state achievement boredom); Studies 3, 4, and 5 focused on their habitual boredom (i.e., trait achievement boredom). Samples consisted of university students from two different cultural contexts (North America and Germany). In line with hypotheses derived from Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, achievement-related subjective control and value negatively predicted boredom. In turn, boredom related positively to attention problems and negatively to intrinsic motivation, effort, use of elaboration strategies, self-regulation, and subsequent academic performance. Findings were consistent across different constructs (state vs. trait achievement boredom), methodologies (qualitative, cross-sectional, and predictive), and cultural contexts. The research is discussed with regard to the underdeveloped literature on achievement emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors propose a theoretical model linking achievement goals and achievement emotions to academic performance. This model was tested in a prospective study with undergraduates (N = 213), using exam-specific assessments of both goals and emotions as predictors of exam performance in an introductory-level psychology course. The findings were consistent with the authors' hypotheses and supported all aspects of the proposed model. In multiple regression analysis, achievement goals (mastery, performance approach, and performance avoidance) were shown to predict discrete achievement emotions (enjoyment, boredom, anger, hope, pride, anxiety, hopelessness, and shame), achievement emotions were shown to predict performance attainment, and 7 of the 8 focal emotions were documented as mediators of the relations between achievement goals and performance attainment. All of these findings were shown to be robust when controlling for gender, social desirability, positive and negative trait affectivity, and scholastic ability. The results are discussed with regard to the underdeveloped literature on discrete achievement emotions and the need to integrate conceptual and applied work on achievement goals and achievement emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical model linking achievement goals to discrete achievement emotions is proposed. The model posits relations between the goals of the trichotomous achievement goal framework and 8 commonly experienced achievement emotions organized in a 2 (activity/outcome focus) × 2 (positive/negative valence) taxonomy. Two prospective studies tested the model in German and American college classrooms. The results were largely in line with the hypotheses. Mastery goals were positive predictors of enjoyment of learning, hope, and pride and were negative predictors of boredom and anger. Performance-approach goals were positive predictors of pride, whereas performance-avoidance goals were positive predictors of anxiety, hopelessness, and shame. The results were consistent across studies and robust when controlled for gender, GPA, social desirability, temperament, and competence expectancy. The research is discussed with regard to the underdeveloped literature on achievement emotions and with regard to the motivation and emotion research domains more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotion transmission often occurs in social interactions but has attracted limited attention in the education domain. Given the frequent interactions among teachers and students, not only teachers' emotions but also peers' emotions may influence students' learning. This preregistered experimental study investigated how peers' emotions (either enjoyment, neutral state, or frustration) affect students' emotion, motivation, and cognition in observational learning of playing a science game. University students (N = 210) watched a video in which a peer model played a game and displayed either enjoyment, a neutral state, or frustration. The data were analyzed by random intercept cross-lagged panel models with Bayesian estimation and generalized order-restricted information criterion approximation. We ran two set of analyses. In Analysis A, we used the peer emotion display that was intended as the condition variable, excluding participants who perceived a different emotion. In Analysis B, we used participants' perception of the peer emotion as the condition variable. Both Analyses A and B revealed that students exposed to peers' enjoyment reported higher enjoyment, relaxation, mastery-approach goals, and game performance, and lower frustration, anger, boredom, and mental effort than those exposed to peers' frustration. We conclude that peers' emotions affect students' achievement emotions, mastery-approach goals, mental effort, and game performance differentially. Educators and researchers should attend to emotion transmission among their students and the role of contagion in education. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: Emotion transmission has primarily been studied in social psychology rather than educational psychology. Our findings suggest that emotion transmission occurs among students: Peers' emotions affect students' motivation, cognitive processes, and performance. The results of this study advance the field of emotion transmission, achievement emotions, achievement goals, instructional design, and particularly, their interconnection. Our research suggests that educators would do well to attend to the subtle influence of students' emotions on others in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control-value theory proposes that achievement emotions impact achievement, and that achievement outcomes (i.e., success and failure) reciprocally influence the development of achievement emotions. Academic buoyancy is an adaptive response to minor academic adversity, and might, therefore, offer protection from achievement being undermined by negative achievement emotions. At present, however, there is little empirical evidence for these hypothesized relations. In this study we examined reciprocal relations between three achievement emotions (enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety) and test performance in the context of mathematics, and whether academic buoyancy moderated relations between these emotions and test performance. Data were collected from 1,242 primary school students (mean age = 9.3 years) over 4 waves within 1 school year. Achievement emotions (T1 and T3) and test performance (T2 and T4) were measured alternately. Academic buoyancy was measured at T3. A structural equation model showed negative relations of anxiety to subsequent test performance and negative relations of test performance to subsequent anxiety. Test performance also predicted enjoyment and boredom, but not vice versa. A latent-interaction structural equation model showed buoyancy moderated relations between anxiety and test performance. Test performance was highest when anxiety was low and buoyancy high. Practitioners should consider using interventions to reduce anxiety and downstream effects on achievement. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: In classroom settings, multiple emotions such as enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety may occur. Among these emotions, anxiety is especially important for students' achievement in mathematics according to this study with elementary schoolchildren. Reducing anxiety would be beneficial for students' achievement, for example through fostering their adaptive responses to failure and increasing perceptions of control. The findings also suggest that developing academic buoyancy can benefit the achievement of students with mild forms of anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enjoyment is one of the most relevant and frequently experienced discrete emotions for both teachers and students in classroom learning contexts. Based on theories of emotion transmission between interaction partners, we propose a reciprocal effects model linking teachers' and students' enjoyment in class. The model suggests that there are positive reciprocal links between teachers' and students' enjoyment and that these links are mediated by teachers' and students' observations of each other's classroom behaviors. The model was tested using 3-wave longitudinal data collected across the 1st 6 months of a school year from N = 69 teachers (78% female) and their 1,643 students from Grades 5 to 10 (57% female). A multilevel structural equation model confirmed our mediation hypotheses. Teacher enjoyment at the beginning of the school year (Time 1 [T1 ]) was positively related to student perceptions of teachers' enthusiasm during teaching 4 weeks later (T2), which was positively related to student enjoyment at midterm (T3). Further, student enjoyment at T1 was positively related to teacher perceptions of their students' engagement in class at T2, which was positively related to teacher enjoyment at T3. This study is the first to provide longitudinal evidence of reciprocal emotion transmission between teachers and students. Implications for future research and teacher training are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our newly proposed integrated academic self-concept model integrates 3 major theories of academic self-concept formation and developmental perspectives into a unified conceptual and methodological framework. Relations among math self-concept (MSC), school grades, test scores, and school-level contextual effects over 6 years, from the end of primary school through the first 5 years of secondary school (a representative sample of 3,370 German students, 42 secondary schools, 50% male, M age at grade 5 = 11.75) support the (1) intemal/extemal frame of reference model: Math school grades had positive effects on MSC, but the effects of German grades were negative; (2) reciprocal effects (longitudinal panel) model: MSC was predictive of and predicted by math test scores and school grades; (3) big-fish-little-pond effect: The effects on MSC were negative for school-average achievement based on 4 indicators (primary school grades in math and German, school-track prior to the start of secondary school, math test scores in the first year of secondary school). Results for all 3 theoretical models were consistent across the 5 secondary school years: This supports the prediction of developmental equilibrium. This integration highlights the robustness of support over the potentially volatile early to middle adolescent period; the interconnectedness and complementarity of 3 ASC models; their counterbalancing strengths and weaknesses; and new theoretical, developmental, and substantive implications at their intersections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both self-regulation and external regulation are key to understanding adolescents' learning and positive development at school. However, evidence on the joint development of self-regulated learning and externally regulated learning during adolescence is lacking. In addition, the current knowledge on interrelations between the development of adolescents' self-regulated learning, externally regulated learning, behaviors of teachers and parents in terms of autonomy support and achievement pressure, and academic achievement is very limited. The present multilevel longitudinal analysis focusing on the domain of mathematics (N = 1,542 German adolescents; annual assessments from Grades 5 to 9; mean age at Grade 5 = 11.79 years, SD = 0.71, 51.75% female) addressed these gaps. Results from multilevel latent basic growth curve models showed that self- and externally regulated learning decreased over the 5 years at both the individual student and the class level. Changes in self- and externally regulated learning were linked: Classes with higher levels of self-regulated learning at Grade 5 showed a stronger decrease in externally regulated learning over time. Initial levels of and changes in student-reported teacher and parental autonomy support and achievement pressure were associated with self- and externally regulated learning at the individual student level; student-reported teacher autonomy support and self-regulated learning were also linked at the class level. Self-regulated learning related positively to standardized achievement test scores but not to adolescents' grades. This study adds to the scarce evidence base on different regulatory forms of adolescents' learning and can inform future research on adolescents' positive development and educational practice. Public Significance Statement: This study indicated that adolescents became less self-regulated in their mathematics learning over time; however, their externally regulated learning declined as well. If teachers and parents supported their autonomy, adolescents reported higher levels of self-regulated learning, whereas adolescents who experienced that their teachers and parents pushed them to perform better at school and had unrealistic academic expectations (i.e., achievement pressure) exhibited higher levels of externally regulated learning. Teachers and parents should refrain from exerting achievement pressure and increase their provision of autonomy support for adolescents' mathematics learning as a means to promote self-regulated learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic self-concept and achievement have been found to be reciprocally related across time. However, existing research has focused on self-concept and achievement scores that have been averaged over long time-periods. For the first time, the present study examined intraindividual (within-person) relations between momentary (state) self-concept and lesson-specific perceived achievement (i.e., self-reported comprehension) in students' everyday school life in real time using intensive longitudinal data. We conducted an experience-sampling (e-diary) study with 372 German secondary school students in Grades 9 and 10 over a period of 3 weeks after each mathematics lesson. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses confirmed a two-factor between-level and within-level structure of the state measures. We used dynamic structural equation modeling to specify a multilevel first-order vector autoregressive model to examine the dynamic relations between self-concept and perceived achievement. We found significant reciprocal effects between academic self-concept and perceived achievement on a lesson-to-lesson basis. Further, we found that these relations were independent of students' gender, reasoning ability, or mathematics grades. We discuss implications for methodology, theory, and practice in self-concept research and educational psychology more generally. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: This study suggests that students' momentary perception of their mathematics ability (i.e., their state mathematics self-concept) directly influences their lesson-specific comprehension (i.e., perceived achievement) from mathematics lesson to mathematics lesson. In turn, state mathematics self-concept is itself influenced by students' previous perceived achievement (i.e., in showing reciprocal relations). Therefore, our results indicate that students' state mathematics self-concept makes a substantial contribution to their academic development in their everyday life at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of information and divergent viewpoints in the 21st century requires an educated citizenry with the ability to critically evaluate information and make informed decisions. To meet this demand, adaptive epistemic understandings and beliefs about the nature of knowledge are needed, such as believing that scientific knowledge is evolving (development of knowledge) and needs to be justified through experimentation (justification of knowledge). Our study is the first to use nationally representative samples from 72 countries/regions (PISA 2015 database; N = 514,119 students) to examine how scientific epistemic beliefs about development and justification of knowledge in science are associated with students' science motivation, achievement, and career aspirations in the STEM fields, as well as the cross-national generalizability of these relations. Results showed that (a) students who had more adaptive beliefs about knowledge being changeable and stemming from experimentation were likely to have high science self-efficacy, utility value, and particularly high intrinsic value; (b) epistemic beliefs were more strongly linked to science achievement than were motivational constructs; (c) the positive relation between epistemic beliefs and STEM-related career aspirations was largely explained by motivation and achievement; (d) the pattern of results generalized well across societies. Our findings suggest that epistemic beliefs are substantially positively associated with adolescents' science learning, implying that developing effective interventions that focus on development and justification of knowledge would be fruitful for promoting science educational outcomes. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: Holding adaptive epistemic beliefs about the nature of scientific knowledge is critical in distinguishing accurate and useful information from diverse, less trustworthy sources in the digital era. Based on data from more than half a million 15-year-old students from 72 countries/regions, we found that adolescents with more adaptive epistemic beliefs tend to have higher science achievement, feel more self-efficacious, be more intrinsically and extrinsically motivated to engage in science learning, and have higher aspirations to pursue a STEM-related career. Notably, epistemic beliefs are more strongly linked to science achievement than are motivational constructs. Consistent patterns across societies suggest that preparing students for 21st century challenges will require policy initiatives that ensure epistemic cognition is a core component of science education and scientific literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that negative affect reduces working memory capacity. Commonly, this effect has been attributed to an allocation of resources to task-irrelevant thoughts, suggesting that negative affect has detrimental consequences for working memory performance. However, rather than simply being a detrimental effect, the affect-induced capacity reduction may reflect a trading of capacity for precision of stored representations. To test this hypothesis, we induced neutral or negative affect and concurrently measured the number and precision of representations stored in sensory and working memory. Compared with neutral affect, negative affect reduced the capacity of both sensory and working memory. However, in both memory systems, this decrease in capacity was accompanied by an increase in precision. These findings demonstrate that observers unintentionally trade capacity for precision as a function of affective state and indicate that negative affect can be beneficial for the quality of memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present research, a 3 x 2 model of achievement goals is proposed and tested. The model is rooted in the definition and valence components of competence, and encompasses 6 goal constructs: task-approach, task-avoidance, self-approach, self-avoidance, other-approach, and other-avoidance. The results from 2 studies provided strong support for the proposed model, most notably the need to separate task-based and self-based goals. Studies 1 and 2 yielded data establishing the 3 x 2 structure of achievement goals, and Study 2 documented the antecedents and consequences of each of the goals in the 3 x 2 model. Terminological, conceptual, and applied issues pertaining to the 3 x 2 model are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affect and emotions are frequently seen as outcomes of mastery and performance goals, but affective experiences may also predict goal adoption. In a predictive study (N = 669 first-year college students), the authors used structural equation modeling to estimate relationships from 2 initial affective experiences to mastery and performance-approach goals, from goals to discrete emotions, and from discrete emotions to final grades in a university course while controlling for prior achievement. Representing initial affective experiences, hopefulness positively predicted mastery and performance goals, whereas helplessness negatively predicted mastery goals. Mastery goals positively predicted enjoyment, which in turn positively predicted achievement, and negatively predicted boredom, which in turn negatively predicted achievement. Anxiety was negatively predicted by mastery goals, positively predicted by performance goals, and exerted a negative predictive influence on achievement. The findings suggest that predictive relationships between goals and achievement are mediated by students' emotions. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of affect and emotions for achievement goal theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors investigated between- and within-domain relations of academic emotions, including students enjoyment, pride, anxiety, anger, and boredom experienced in mathematics, physics, German, and English classes (N = 542; Grades 8 and 11). Corroborating assumptions of domain specificity, the between-domains relations of these emotions were weak and inconsistent. However, there was more domain specificity of academic emotions in Grade 11 students compared with Grade 8 students, suggesting that between-domains differentiation increased as a function of grade level. Concerning within-domain relations, emotional experiences of enjoyment and pride, anxiety, and anger and boredom were clearly differentiated. The strength of within-domain relations of academic emotions differed considerably across the 4 academic domains. However, for each of the 4 domains, within-domain relations were similar for the 2 grade levels. Methodological and educational implications as well as directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the academic and action control in the achievement of college students. Information on the demands for self-initiative and autonomy in college; Importance of perceived academic control and action control for self-regulated learning; Description of Kuhl's action control theory.

This study extends the classic constructive dialogue/debate between self-concept and self-efficacy researchers (Marsh, Roche, Pajares, & Miller, 1997) regarding the distinctions between these 2 constructs. The study is a substantive-methodological synergy, bringing together new substantive, theoretical, and statistical models and developing new tests of the classic jingle-jangle fallacy. We demonstrate that in a representative sample of 3,350 students from math classes in 43 German schools, generalized math self-efficacy and math outcome expectancies were indistinguishable from math self-concept, but were distinct from test-related and functional measures of self-efficacy. This is consistent with the jingle-jangle fallacies that are proposed. On the basis of pretest variables, we demonstrate negative frame-of-reference effects in social (big-fish-little-pond effect) and dimensional (internal/external frame-of-reference effect) comparisons for three self-concept-like constructs in each of the first 4 years of secondary school. In contrast, none of the frame-of-reference effects were significantly negative for either of the two self-efficacy-like constructs in any of the 4 years of testing. After controlling for pretest variables, each of the 3 self-concept-like constructs (math self-concept, outcome expectancy, and generalized math self-efficacy) in each of the 4 years of secondary school was more strongly related to posttest outcomes (school grades, test scores, future aspirations) than were the corresponding 2 self-efficacy- like factors. Extending discussion by Marsh et al. (1997), we clarify distinctions between self-efficacy and self-concept; the role of evaluation, worthiness, and outcome expectancy in selfefficacy measures; and complications in generalized and global measures of self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-average achievement is often reported to have positive effects on individual achievement (peer spillover effect). However, it is well established that school-average achievement has negative effects on academic self-concept (big-fish-little-pond effect [BFLPE]) and that academic self-concept and achievement are positively correlated and mutually reinforcing (reciprocal effects model). We resolve this theoretical paradox based on a large, longitudinal sample (N = 14,985 U.S. children) and improved methodology. More appropriate multilevel modeling that controls for phantom effects (due to measurement error and preexisting differences) makes the BFLPE even more negative, but turns the peer spillover effect from positive to slightly below zero. Thus, attending a high-achieving school has negative effects on academic self-concept and a nonpositive effect on achievement. The results question previous studies and meta-analyses showing a positive peer spillover effect that do not control for phantom effects, along with previous policy and school selection decisions based on this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistently with a priori predictions, school retention (repeating a year in school) had largely positive effects for a diverse range of 10 outcomes (e.g., math self-concept, self-efficacy, anxiety, relations with teachers, parents and peers, school grades, and standardized achievement test scores). The design, based on a large, representative sample of German students (N = 1,325, M age = 11.75 years at Year 5) measured each year during the first 5 years of secondary school, was particularly strong. It featured 4 independent retention groups (different groups of students, each repeating 1 of the 4 first years of secondary school; total N = 103), with multiple posttest waves to evaluate short- and long-term effects, controlling for covariates (gender, age, socioeconomic status, primary school grades, IQ) and 1 or more sets of 10 outcomes collected prior to retention. Tests of developmental invariance demonstrated that the effects of retention (controlling for covariates and preretention outcomes) were highly consistent across this potentially volatile early to middle adolescent period; largely positive effects in the first year following retention were maintained in subsequent school years following retention. Particularly considering that these results are contrary to at least some of the accepted wisdom about school retention, the findings have important implications for educational researchers, policymakers, and parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the classic research of Nicholls (1976) and others, effort has been recognized as a double-edged sword: while it might enhance achievement, it undermines academic self-concept (ASC). However, there has not been a thorough evaluation of the longitudinal reciprocal effects of effort, ASC, and achievement, in the context of modem self-concept theory and statistical methodology. Nor have there been developmental equilibrium tests of whether these effects are consistent across the potentially volatile early-to-middle adolescence. Hence, focusing on mathematics, we evaluate reciprocal effects models (REMs) over the first 4 years of secondary school (grades 5-8), relating effort, achievement (test scores and school grades), ASC, and ASC x Effort interactions for a representative sample of 3,144 German students (Mage = 11.75 years at Wave 1). ASC, effort, and achievement were positively correlated at each wave, and there was a clear pattern of positive reciprocal positive effects among ASC, test scores, and school grades--each contributing to the other, after controlling for the prior effects of all others. There was an asymmetrical pattern of effects for effort that is consistent with the double-edged sword premise: prior school grades had positive effects on subsequent effort, but prior effort had nonsignificant or negative effects on subsequent grades and ASC. However, on the basis of a synergistic application of new theory and methodology, we predicted and found a significant ASC x Effort interaction, such that prior effort had more positive effects on subsequent ASC and school grades when prior ASC was high--thus providing a key to breaking the double-edged sword. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the authors examined the relationship between teacher and student enjoyment. Based on social- cognitive approaches to emotions, they hypothesized (a) that teacher enjoyment and student enjoyment within classrooms are positively linked and (b) that teacher enthusiasm mediates the relationship between teacher and student enjoyment. Self-reported enjoyment of mathematics classes was available from 1,542 students from 71 classrooms at 2 time points (Grades 7 and 8). At Time 2, mathematics teachers' reports of their enjoyment of teaching were available (N = 71), as well as student ratings of teacher enthusiasm. The findings were in line with theoretical expectations. Multilevel structural equation modeling showed that teacher and student enjoyment were positively related even when the authors adjusted for students' previous-class levels of mathematics enjoyment, and that the effect of teacher enjoyment on student enjoyment was mediated by teacher enthusiasm. Discussion centers on the practical implications for affective interactions in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]