Achievement Goals and Achievement Emotions in Elementary School Students

Abstract

Background: In academic settings, the goals that students pursue have a significant impact on students’ motivation, performance and emotions, a condition known as achievement emotion. Objectives: The goal of this research is to assess the effect of accomplishment goal on achievement emotion of students. Patients and Methods: The study comprised 380 elementary students of grades four to six. They completed self-report questionnaires tapping Achievement Goals Questionnaire (AGQ) and Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) in the classroom during a school session. All descriptive statistics, regression and confirmatory factor analyses, were performed using SPSS 19. Results: Simultaneous multiple regression of achievement goals on students’ achievement motivation showed that, each of the achievement goals predicts achievement emotions differently. The findings are fully presented in the result section. Conclusions: The results of this study revealed that achievement goal is a significant factor in predicting achievement emotions. Actually, these results present evidence of the advantages of mastery goals and the disadvantages of performance avoidance goals.