Sungok Serena Shim

Social Achievement Goals: The Nature and Consequences of Different Orientations Toward Social Competence

The proposition that achievement goals are applicable to the social domain was examined in four studies. Study 1 established that different orientations toward developing or demonstrating social competence can be seen in individuals’ responses to open-ended questions about their social goals and social competence. Studies 2 through 4 evaluated a new survey measure of social achievement goals. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized model of social achievement goals. Convergent and discriminant validity for the new measure of social achievement goals was established. In line with hypotheses, a social development goal was associated with adjustment and a social demonstration-avoid goal was associated with maladjustment both concurrently and longitudinally. A social development goal also was positively related to instructor ratings of students’ social adjustment in small classroom settings. A social demonstration-approach goal was most often unrelated to adjustment. The importance of social achievement goals for a comprehensive understanding of social motivation and adjustment is discussed.

Differential Profiles of Students Identified by Their Teacher as Having Avoidant, Appropriate, or Dependent Help-Seeking Tendencies in the Classroom.

In Study 1, teachers identified 6th-grade students (N = 844) as having 1 of 3 help-seeking behavioral tendencies in the classroom: avoidant, appropriate, or dependent. More students were identified as having appropriate (65%) than avoidant (22%) or dependent (13%) help-seeking tendencies. Student self-reports of help avoidance were in line with teacher reports. In Study 2, students displaying different help-seeking tendencies in math class differed from each other in self-reported motivational, affective, relational, and achievement-related ways. In general, avoidant help seekers had a more maladaptive profile compared with appropriate help seekers. In general, dependent help seekers had an adaptive profile regarding social relationships (similar to appropriate help seekers) but a maladaptive profile regarding anxiety, academic efficacy, and achievement (similar to avoidant help seekers).

Goal Structures: The Role of Teachers’ Achievement Goals and Theories of Intelligence

This study investigated how teachers’ achievement goals for teaching and implicit theories of their students’ intelligence are associated with the goal structures that they create in their classrooms. Teachers (N = 209) reported their achievement goals for teaching (mastery, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals), implicit theories of intelligence (belief that their students’ intellectual ability is malleable or fixed), and achievement goal structures that they created within their classroom (mastery vs. performance goal structures). In general, mastery goals for teaching positively predicted classroom mastery goal structure while performance-approach goals for teaching positively predicted classroom performance goal structure. However, there were significant interactions between mastery and performance-approach goals and between performance-avoidance goals and implicit theory of students’ intelligence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Do Gender Differences in Help Avoidance Vary by Ethnicity? An Examination of African American and European American Students During Early Adolescence

The present research examined whether the nature of gender differences varies by race for two types of academic engagement in the classroom (help avoidance and voice with the teacher) in a sample of early adolescents (N = 456; 55% female, 60% African American and 40% European American) making the transition to middle school. Growth curve analyses indicated that help avoidance increased over time, voice remained stable, and achievement declined. In line with hypotheses based on cultural variations in the female role, there were no gender differences in help avoidance for African American students, whereas for European American students, girls were lower in help avoidance than were boys. For African American students, there were no gender differences in voice with the teacher, whereas for European American students, girls were higher than were boys. These group differences were present at all 3 waves. For all students, increases in help avoidance negatively predicted changes in achievement, whereas increases in voice positively predicted achievement. Results underscore the importance of examining gender and ethnicity together to understand academic adjustment during early adolescence.

Help Seeking Among Peers: The Role of Goal Structure and Peer Climate

ABSTRACT With a sample of 373 middle school students, the present longitudinal study examined the role of the classroom peer climate in mediating the relation between perceptions of classroom goal structures and academic help seeking among peers. Classroom goal structures were measured in the fall and classroom peer climate and help seeking among peers were assessed in the spring. Structural equation modeling indicated classroom mastery goal structure directly predicted desirable help-seeking behavior among peers (i.e., high adaptive help seeking and low expedient and avoidance of help seeking). A positive classroom peer climate mediated the effects of classroom mastery goal structure on expedient and avoidance of help seeking. A negative classroom peer climate mediated the effects of classroom performance goal structure on avoidance of help seeking. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Changes in self-esteem across the first year in college: the role of achievement goals

This longitudinal study examined the effects of achievement goals on the growth trajectories of self-esteem during the first-year at a comprehensive public university. College freshmen (N = 311) were followed for one academic year with three time points. Between-individual differences and within-individual change in achievement goals were distinguished and used as predictors for the growth trajectories of self-esteem. A growth curve analysis revealed that initially high mastery goals and subsequent increases in mastery goals were related to high self-esteem while initially high performance-avoidance goals were related to low self-esteem. The initial levels of performance-approach goals were not related to self-esteem but subsequent increases in performance-approach goals were associated with low self-esteem. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Social Achievement Goals Validation Among Rural African American Adolescents

Little extant research attempts to understand why rural African Americans engage in social relationships with peers in school. This is somewhat surprising as rural students’ peer interactions often affect their scholastic desires, and peers can alter African Americans’ academic performance. Hence, the current study examined both the presence and psychometric validity of social achievement goals among rural African American high school students. Results suggest the presence of three reasons for engaging in social relationships in school: social development (desire to increase friendship quality), social demonstration-approach (wanting to appear “cool” among friends), and social demonstration-avoid (fear of appearing socially inferior). Confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis provide support for both the presence and valid measurement of social achievement goals among rural African American adolescents.

A Comparison of Methods for Estimating Relationships in the Change Between Two Time Points for Latent Variables

Collection and analysis of longitudinal data is an important tool in understanding growth and development over time in a whole range of human endeavors. Ideally, researchers working in the longitudinal framework are able to collect data at more than two points in time, as this will provide them with the potential for a deeper understanding of the development processes under study and a much broader array of statistical modeling options. However, in some circumstances data collection is limited to only two time points, perhaps because of resource limitations, issues with the context in which the data are collected, or the nature of the trait under study. In such instances, researchers may still want to learn about complex relationships in the data, such as the correlation between changes in latent traits that are being measured. However, with only two data points, standard approaches for modeling such relationships, such as growth curve modeling, cannot be used. The current simulation study compares the performance of two methods for estimating the correlations among changes in latent variables between two points in time, the two-wave latent change score model and the latent difference factor model. Results of the simulation study showed that both methods yielded generally accurate estimates of the correlation between changes in a latent trait, with relatively small standard errors. Estimation bias and standard errors were lower with larger samples, larger factor loading magnitudes, and more indicators per factor. Further comparisons between the methods and implications of these results are discussed.

Psychological mechanism explaining adolescents’ academic, social and psychological adjustment

Educational Psychology provides an international forum for the discussion and dissemination of research findings in psychological aspects of education. The topical focus of the current issue is self and adolescent. Eight outstanding studies are featured in this issue. These studies represent the current research trends on adolescents in different parts of the world, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Greece, Japan, Poland, and Spain. These studies offer important insight by identifying the complex relationships among variables, leading to important educational outcomes in academic, social, and psychological domains. To fully understand students’ learning and achievement, one must examine various contexts beyond the school setting. Hawrot (2018) analysed a large longitudinal data-set on Polish lower secondary students (N = 4,936) using latent class analysis. A wide variety of individual, familial, and institutional factors associated with the structure and the predictors of out of school assistance were identified. Given that private tutoring is becoming increasingly popular, this topic is very timely. Tamm, Tõnissaar, Jaani, and Tulviste (2018) examined psychological adjustment and behaviour among Estonian early adolescents. The study used the peer ratings for school behaviours and self-report for psychological characteristics. Accordingly, the bias caused by common method variance was reduced. An important lesson gained from this study is that students’ psychological maladjustment manifests in everyday behaviours that are observable by peers. The remaining six studies fall into the category of mediation research. Illuminating the underlying mechanism is a worthy pursuit: Such an approach clarifies the explanatory mechanism that mediates observed relations between the antecedents and outcomes. Furthermore, mediation research bears great practical significance by revealing different points of intervention. The following six articles investigated various indicators of academic, social, and psychological adjustment and aimed to specify individual or contextual mediators. Many of these studies utilised a longitudinal design to strengthen causal conclusions. Phan, Ngu, and Alrashidi (2018) studied academic adjustment among Australian secondary school students. In this study, the authors measured self-efficacy beliefs at task, course, and global levels and investigated how they differentially relate to academic outcomes. Personal resolve and effective functioning, two newly developed motivational constructs, were considered as mediators. The results highlight the importance of contextualisation of self-efficacy. Mouratidis, Michou, Aelterman, Haerens, and Vansteenkiste (2018) showed that Belgian adolescents tended to work harder and procrastinate less at the end of the semester if they had received support for the needs for autonomy and competence in the beginning of the semester. This effect was mediated by the quality of students’ motivation. The study clearly demonstrated that the motivational quality of the learning environment shapes the quality of students’ own motivation. García-Ros, Pérez-González, Cavas-Martínez, and Tomás (2018) examined first-year students in engineering degrees at a public university in Spain. This study highlighted the importance of social learning strategies (e.g. help seeking and peer learning), which predicted later adjustment and retention. The authors considered various mediators identified in the research on first year

College Students' Social Goals and Psychological Adjustment: Mediation via Emotion Regulation

Abstract: University life can be stressful and students may struggle to adjust socially. We examined students’ social achievement goals—their orientations towards their relationships with their peers—as one important factor underlying students’ social and psychological adjustment in college. When investigating the direct and indirect effects of social achievement goals on psychological adjustment (i.e., life satisfaction, depression, stress, and worry), the mediating role of emotion regulation was examined. Data were collected from students attending a university in China (N = 1,242, 35% male). The widely adopted three-factor structure of social achievement goals (i.e., social development goals, social demonstration-approach goals, social demonstration-avoidance goals) was confirmed to fit the data among Chinese college students. The results show the direct and indirect benefits of endorsing a social development goal. Augmented emotion regulation mediated the effect of social development goals. The total effects of a social demonstration-approach goal were weak, but the goal indirectly impaired students’ psychological adjustment via reduced emotion regulation. Endorsing a social demonstration-avoidance goal tended to compromise psychological adjustment and the effects were mediated through reduced emotion regulation. Implications for supporting students’ adjustment to college are discussed.