Conflicts between on-task and off-task behaviors in the classroom: the influences of parental monitoring, peer value orientations, students’ goals, and their value orientations

Abstract

Students in class are sometimes torn between following the lesson and engaging in off-task behavior. In this paper, instead of classifying it as a form of deviant behavior, off-task behavior is reconstructed as a manifestation of students multiple motivations in the classroom. The study examines whether parental monitoring, peer value orientations, students’ personal goals, and their value orientations determine students’ motivational interference in these conflict situations. Participants were 348 students (mean age 15.24) from 16 classes of four high schools. A self-report questionnaire was used that combined a qualitative assessment of personal goals with a quantitative approach. Qualitative answers were coded and data was analyzed in a series of hierarchical linear models. As hypothesized, relationships between motivational interference and parental monitoring, peer achievement and well-being value orientations, students’ school- and leisure-related goals, as well as students’ achievement and well-being value orientations were demonstrated. Students’ own value orientations emerged to be the strongest predictor of motivational interference and mediated between parental monitoring and motivational interference. The results suggest that teachers should help students to reconcile their multiple values and goals in the classroom.