Academic motivation and achievement among urban adolescents

Abstract

Although researchers report that motivational variables, such as interest and self-efficacy, positively relate to forms of achievement (e.g., standardized test scores, grades, number of problems solved correctly), other studies indicate that motivation’s contribution to achievement is not consistent. Fewer stud-ies, however, have examined these connections within African American samples. This 2-year, cross-sectional investigation of eighth- and ninth-grade students specifically focused on motivation and GPA in a large, urban, pre-dominantly African American, school district in the Midwest. Regression analyses of self-report levels of three motivational variables (i.e., self-efficacy beliefs, goal orientations, and domain interest) revealed that signifi-cant gender differences existed in goal orientation and achievement scores in both grades. Furthermore, self-efficacy and learning goals contributed to domain interests but the predictive value of these three motivational variables on achievement differed at each grade level