Mixed feelings: Profiles of emotions among elementary mathematics students and how they function within a control-value framework

Abstract

Mixed feelings happen in and outside of the classroom; yet prior research has focused on discrete emotions, essentially ignoring the interaction between emotions. We extend prior person-centered studies of achievement emotions by placing emotions within the Control-Value Theory framework to examine how patterns of emotions mediate the relation between motivation and achievement. We found four profiles of emotion in both fourth (n = 5228) and fifth graders (n = 5299)—two positive profiles, a negative profile, and a mixed emotions profile where frustrated and challenged were the primary emotions. All profiles mediated the relationship between math expectancy and achievement. However, only three of the four emotion profiles mediated the relation between math value and achievement.