The role of writing motives in the interplay between implicit theories, achievement goals, self-efficacy, and writing performance.

It is well established that students' motivation for writing is a key predictor of their writing performance. The aim of the current study is to study and map the relations underlying different motivational constructs (i.e., implicit theories, achievement goals, self-efficacy, and writing motives) and to investigate how these contribute to students' writing performance. For that, 390 Flemish students in stage three of the academic track of secondary education (16-18  years old) completed questionnaires measuring their implicit theories of writing, achievement goals, self-efficacy for writing, and writing motives. Furthermore, they completed an argumentative writing test. Path analysis revealed statistically significant direct paths from (1) entity beliefs of writing to performance avoidance goals ( β  = 0.23), (2) mastery goals to self-efficacy for writing ( β _{argumentation}  = 0.14, β _regulation  = 0.25, β _conventions  = 0.18), performance-approach goals to self-efficacy for writing ( β _{argumentation}  = 0.38, β _regulation  = 0.21, β _conventions  = 0.25), and performance-avoidance goals to self-efficacy for writing ( β _{argumentation}  = -0.30, β _regulation  = -0.24, β _conventions  = -0.28), (3) self-efficacy for regulation to both autonomous ( β  = 0.20) and controlled motivation ( β  = -0.15), (4) mastery goals to autonomous motivation ( β  = 0.58), (5) performance approach and avoidance goals to controlled motivation ( β  = 0.18; β  = 0.35), and (6) autonomous motivation to writing performance ( β  = 0.11). This study moves the field of writing motivation research forward by studying the contribution of implicit theories, achievement goals, and self-efficacy to students' writing performance, via writing motives.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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