Analyzing students’ long-term motivational and emotional effects on achievement performance within and across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds

Abstract

This dissertation examines how students’ motivational and emotional factors influence their future educational and professional achievements within and across diverse socioeconomic status (SES) groups. This study leverages a quantitative longitudinal study methodology employing a publicly available sample of 16,197 U.S. students from 10th grade through age 26. The theoretical model of this study is grounded in the situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT; Eccles & Wigfield, 2024) and generalized control-value theory (CVT; Pekrun, 2024), encompassing five latent constructs: expectancies for academic success, subjective task values, assurance about academic success, assurance about career success, and SES-related achievement performance. To investigate the relationships between these latent constructs, this study performed structural equation modeling (SEM) for the within-SES analysis and multi-group structural equation modeling (MGSEM) for the across-SES analysis. The findings revealed that students’ motivational and emotional predictors affected their future achievements differently both within and across low, low-mid, mid-high, and high SES groups. Specifically, students from lower SES groups were more inclined to experience social mobility through their motivational factors, whereas those from higher SES groups were more impacted by their emotional factors. Overall, students’ expectancies and assurance about their academic success were positive predictors of their future SES-related achievements while their values and assurance about career success were negative influencers. These findings contribute to understanding longitudinal comprehensive relationships between motivation and emotions among students from diverse SES and how these factors ultimately enhance students’ academic and professional achievements