Ricarda Steinmayr

Longitudinal Analysis of Intrinsic Motivation and Competence Beliefs: Is There a Relation over Time?.

The present study explored whether competence beliefs and intrinsic motivation for different school domains show reciprocal effects over time. A sample of 670 German elementary school pupils (M= 8.8 years, SD= 0.51) was followed over 1 year. At 4 measurement occasions, children completed self-reports on their intrinsic motivation and competence beliefs for math, German, and school in general. Latent growth models revealed that intrinsic motivation and competence beliefs decreased over time. Comparing correlational and cross-lagged structural equation models yielded only weak evidence for cross-lagged influences between the 2 constructs. Results suggest that the developmental curves of competence beliefs and intrinsic motivation might be less inextricably interwoven than frequently assumed.

Gender differences in school success: what are the roles of students’ intelligence, personality and motivation?

Background: Education is a key variable for reaching individually and socially desired outcomes. Specifically, school grades are important admission criteria for higher education and job positions. Nowadays, in countries committed to equal opportunities, girls obtain better school grades than boys, but the reasons why girls outperform boys are not well understood. In the following, individual student characteristics (i.e. intelligence, personality, motivation) were investigated as promising candidates that may account for gender differences in school performance. Purpose: This is a review of research findings on gender differences in performance-related individual students’ characteristics. These findings may help to explain differences in boys’ and girls’ school achievement. It was hypothesised that girls are better adapted to today’s school environment because of their intelligence (general, specific), personality (Big Five) and motivation (ability self-concept, interest or intrinsic values, goal orientations). To investigate this hypothesis, we reviewed literature with respect to five questions: (1) How strongly are intelligence, personality and motivation associated with school achievement? (2) Are there mean level differences between boys and girls in these characteristics? (3) Do these characteristics show gender differences in predicting school achievement? (4) Can gender differences in these characteristics explain the association between gender and school achievement? (5) Are gender differences in these characteristics causally related to differences in boys’ and girls’ school achievement? Sources of evidence: We mainly based our review on meta-analyses and literature reviews. If no meta-analyses or reviews were available, we reported results of representative single studies, including results from our own studies. To illustrate the magnitude of gender differences, we also reported statistical parameters (correlation coefficients, effect sizes and regression coefficients). Main argument: Concerning the five research questions, we found that, first, among the characteristics investigated here, general intelligence, ability self-concepts and self-discipline were the most important predictors of school performance. Second, gender differences in students’ individual characteristics varied from non-existent (e.g. general intelligence) to strong (e.g. self-discipline). Third, there was no indication that these characteristics were differently important for boys’ and girls’ school performance. Fourth, gender differences in intelligence, personality and motivation partially mediated the association between gender and school achievement but cannot fully explain it. Fifth, whether differences in intelligence, personality and motivation cause performance differences between boys and girls remains unknown because there were no studies that have investigated this question with designs that could test for causal inferences. Conclusion: Gender differences in students’ individual characteristics contribute to a significant extent to gender differences in school performance. Taken together, the effects of gender differences in students’ individual characteristics can partially but not fully account for gender differences in school performance. Girls are somewhat better adapted to today’s school environments, especially because of their better verbal intelligence, higher Agreeableness, stronger self-discipline, as well as certain aspects of their motivation. In light of these specific differences, it is argued that changing certain aspects of school environments might help boys to better succeed in school and, thus, reduce educational inequality.

Predicting School Achievement from Motivation and Personality

Abstract. The present study aims at comparing the predictive power of motivation and broad personality traits for school performance and contributes to an understanding of the nomological network of personality. A sample of German adolescent students (N = 342 11th and 12th graders, age M = 16.94, SD = .71) gave self-reports of need for achievement, domain-specific ability self-concepts and task values in German and Math as well as the Big Five of personality. Grades in German and mathematics as well as grade-point average served as performance criteria. On a bivariate zero-order level, the motivational constructs showed the hypothesized positive associations with school achievement in Math, German, and GPA. With respect to personality, only Conscientiousness was consistently positively associated with grades, whereas Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness were either not or weakly associated with one or two out of three performance criteria. Hierarchical and stepwise regressi...

Adolescents’ academic achievement and life satisfaction: the role of parents’ education

Drawing on the background of positive psychology, there has only recently been a focus on adolescents’ life satisfaction (LS) in the context of education. Studies examining the relationship between adolescents’ academic achievement and LS have shown conflicting results and the reasons are not fully understood. The present study investigated the role of parents’ education as a potential moderator of the relationship between adolescents’ academic achievement and LS. A sample of German high school students (N = 411) reported parents’ educational attainment, as an indicator of family socio-economic status, and students’ academic achievement was operationalized by grade point average in five subjects. Results indicated that only mothers’ education functioned as a moderator of the relationship between academic achievement and students’ LS. The association between academic achievement and LS was only found in the group of students whose mothers had achieved the same or a higher education (at least high school diploma) as their own children. Fathers’ educational attainment, however, was not a significant moderator of the respective relationship. Directions for future research and the differential influences of fathers’ and mothers’ education are discussed with regard to potential underlying processes.

Motivation as a Mediator of Social Disparities in Academic Achievement

The present study aimed at contributing to the understanding of social disparities in relation to students‘ academic achievement in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics domains. A sample of n = 321 German 11th graders completed measures of their family socio–economic status (SES), general intelligence, domain–specific ability self–concepts and subjective scholastic values in math, physics and chemistry. Students‘ grades in these subjects received four months after testing served as criteria. Significant mediation effects were found for all motivational variables between fathers‘ SES and students‘ achievement, whereas for mothers‘ SES, only childrens academic self–concept in chemistry was a significant mediator. These results also held when students‘ general intelligence was controlled. Additionally, we controlled for students‘ grades before testing to investigate which variables mediated the influence of SES on change in school performance. Motivational variables significantly mediated the influence of fathers‘ SES on change in school performance in math but not in chemistry and physics. Intelligence significantly mediated the influence of fathers‘ SES on change in school performance in physics and chemistry but not in mathematics. The impact of mothers‘ SES on change in grades in chemistry was mediated by intelligence. Among others, the reasons potentially accounting for the differential influences of fathers‘ and mothers‘ SES are discussed. Copyright

Parents' education and children's achievement : The role of personality

The reasons for the positive association between families’ background variables, such as parents’ education, and childrens academic achievement have not fully been clarified yet. The present study investigates childrens intelligence and personality as potential mediators. A sample of 580 German high school students (mean age: M = 17.0; SD = 0.7) indicated the highest education of their parents and completed measures assessing their own personality and intelligence. Childrens academic achievement was operationalized by grade point average. Childrens intelligence, openness to experience and, marginally, conscientiousness partially mediated the association between parents’ education and childrens academic achievement. Even after controlling for childrens intelligence, the mediating effects of those personality traits held. Results are discussed with regard to potential underlying processes. Copyright

Subjective Well-Being, Test Anxiety, Academic Achievement: Testing for Reciprocal Effects

In the context of adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB), research has recently focused on a number of different school variables. The direction of the relationships between adolescents’ SWB, academic achievement, and test anxiety is, however, still open although reciprocal causation has been hypothesized. The present study set out to investigate to what extent SWB, academic achievement, and test anxiety influence each other over time. A sample of N = 290 11th grade students (n = 138 female; age: M = 16.54 years, SD = 0.57) completed measures of SWB and test anxiety in the time span of 1 year. Grade point average (GPA) indicated students’ academic achievement. We analyzed the reciprocal relations using cross-lagged structural equation modeling. The model fit was satisfactory for all computed models. Results indicated that the worry component of test anxiety negatively and GPA positively predicted changes in the cognitive component of SWB (life satisfaction). Worry also negatively predicted changes in the affective component of SWB. Moreover, worry negatively predicted changes in students’ GPA. Directions for future research and the differential predictive influences of academic achievement and test anxiety on adolescents’ SWB are discussed with regard to potential underlying processes.

Are gifted adolescents more satisfied with their lives than their non-gifted peers?

Studies investigating the life satisfaction of intellectually gifted and non-gifted students are scarce and often suffer from methodological shortcomings. We examined the life satisfaction of gifted and non-gifted adolescents using a rather unselected sample of N = 655 German high-school students (n = 75 gifted), adequate comparison groups of non-gifted students, and a clear definition of giftedness (general intelligence g > 2 SD above the mean). There was no difference in life satisfaction between gifted and non-gifted adolescents (d < |0.1|). Girls reported somewhat lower life satisfaction scores than boys (d = 0.24). However, this result was not specific to giftedness but was instead found across the entire sample. Thus, gifted girls were not found to be especially unsatisfied with their lives. Our findings support previous research showing that giftedness is not a risk factor for impaired psycho-social well-being of boys or girls.

Erste Untersuchungen zur Kriteriums-Validität des I-S-T 2000R an Erwachsenen beiderlei Geschlechts

Zusammenfassung. Eine Stichprobe von insgesamt N = 219 berufstatigen Personen beiderlei Geschlechts im Alter von durchschnittlich 34 Jahren bearbeitete das Grund- und Erweiterungsmodul (GM bzw. EM) des Intelligenz-Struktur-Tests 2000 R (IST; Amthauer et al., 2001) sowie den CFT 3 (Cattell & Weis, 1971). Auf siebenfach abgestuften Skalen beurteilten jeweils drei Bekannte, Freunde oder Verwandte jede der an der Untersuchung teilnehmenden Personen hinsichtlich ihres Allgemeinen Wissens sowie ihrer verbalen, numerischen und figuralen Fahigkeiten als Facetten der Allgemeinen Intelligenz; als weitere externe Kriterien lagen Mase fur das Ausbildungsniveau und die ausgeubte Berufstatigkeit vor. In fast allen Skalen des IST, im CFT 3 sowie in den Fremdeinschatzungen lagen die Mittelwerte der Frauen unter denjenigen der Manner. Die hochsten Korrelationen des IST bestanden mit Koeffizienten um r = .60 gegenuber dem Kriterium “Ausbildungserfolg“; in ahnlicher Grosenordnung korrelierte der IST mit der fremdeingeschatz...

Prevention of ADHD related problems: a universal preschool program

Purpose – Early onset of behavioral disorders is predictive of long term adverse outcomes. There are some indicated and selective early prevention programs for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common behavioral disorders in childhood and adolescence. The purpose of this paper is to present a universal preschool program for preventing the development of ADHD related symptoms for children aged three to six. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 413 preschool children (experimental group (EG)=193; control group (CG)=220), and their teachers participated in the study. Children in the EG were randomized to two conditions: universal intervention (behavior modification (BM)=99) vs additional ADHD specific elements (BM+attention training; BM+AT=94) to evaluate effects of a universal intervention vs additional ADHD specific elements. The universal intervention trained general behavior modification (BM) techniques to enhance start behavior (i.e. following color based rules, positi...