Achievement Goal Orientations and Adolescents' Subjective Well-Being in School: The Mediating Roles of Academic Social Comparison Directions.

Tingting Yu,Lili Tian,E Scott Huebner

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00037

Tingting Yu, Lili Tian + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00037

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the multiple mediational roles of academic social comparison directions (upward academic social comparison and downward academic social comparison) on the relationships between achievement goal orientations (i.e., mastery goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals) and subjective well-being (SWB) in school (school satisfaction, school affect) in adolescent students in China. A total of 883 Chinese adolescent students (430 males; Mean age = 12.99) completed a multi-measure questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypotheses. Results indicated that (1) mastery goal orientations and performance-approach goal orientations both showed a statistically significant, positive correlation with SWB in school whereas performance-avoidance goal orientations showed a statistically significant, negative correlation with SWB in school among adolescents; (2) upward academic social comparisons mediated the relation between the three types of achievement goal orientations (i.e., mastery goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals) and SWB in school; (3) downward academic social comparisons mediated the relation between mastery goal orientations and SWB in school as well as the relation between performance-avoidance goal orientations and SWB in school. The findings suggest possible important cultural differences in the antecedents of SWB in school in adolescent students in China compared to adolescent students in Western nations.

Highlights

Schools represent one of their major life domains (Huebner, 1994)
Performance-avoidance goals were positively related to downward academic social comparison but not significantly related to subjective well-being (SWB) in school
MG, Mastery Goals; PAPG, Performance-approach Goals; PAVG, Performance-avoidance Goals; UASC, Upward Academic Social Comparison; DASC, Downward Academic Social Comparison; SWBS, Subjective Well-being in School; ES, Emotional Stability. ∗p < 0.05; ∗∗p < 0.01

Summary

Introduction

Schools represent one of their major life domains (Huebner, 1994). Adolescents devote substantial amounts of time and effort to school experiences, and their school experiences play an important role in facilitating or inhibiting successful lifelong development (Schaps and Solomon, 2003). Educational leaders and professionals in China and many other nations have paid much greater attention to the academic achievement of students than to students’ subjective well-being (SWB) in school (Dello-Iacovo, 2009). From such a perspective, a good education should be concerned about students’ academic learning and SWB in school. It is gratifying that some scholars have attached importance to SWB in school (e.g., Konu et al, 2015; Tian et al, 2015b; Persson et al, 2016), and evidence is accumulating that SWB and academic achievement and behavior in school are reciprocally related (Suldo et al, 2011; Lyons et al, 2014; Ng et al, 2015)

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