Adolescents' Goal Orientations and Academic Achievement: Long-Term relations and gender differences

Abstract

The purpose of the present article is to study the predictability of eight different types of goal orientations as motives for academic achievement. These goal orientations could be distinguished on the basis of a content analysis of 7391 pupil responses to the open-ended question 'Why do you go to school?' The findings of the present study suggest that already at the age of 13 pupils pursue a variety of academic and non-academic goals in a short- as well as in a long-term future. The different types of goal orientations in which these goals are involved are differentially related to achievement over time and gender. The study suggests in addition that the pupils who are most successful in school over time are those who take into consideration the perspectives of other people plus those who try to prevent their own feared-for situations becoming reality and pupils who try to pursue multiple goals. These motivation groups are found to comprise more girls than boys.