Reciprocal Relations Between Chinese Students’ Beliefs of Competence, Effort Goal, and Academic Achievement

Abstract

Research has shown significant impacts of academic self-concept and motivation on students’ academic outcomes. However, a majority of these studies have used samples in Western society, with Eastern students being mostly neglected. With increasing attention received by Asian samples, cross-cultural research in school psychology has found some differences between Western and Asian students, particularly in competence (i.e., academic self-concept) and effort beliefs. Still missing in the literature are the interrelations among competence and effort beliefs and academic achievement and how competence and effort beliefs may similarly or differentially influence Asian students’ achievement. In the study reported here, longitudinal data were collected from a secondary school in Southern China (N = 628) at three time points (7th to 9th grades). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted to test longitudinal interrelations (T1, T2, T3) between competence and effort beliefs on the one hand and to examine the strength of competence and effort beliefs in predicting subsequent academic achievement on the other. The results showed that both competence and effort beliefs were quite stable across 3 years. However, differential relations between the two belief constructs and academic achievement were observed across the years: T1 competence but not T1 effort positively predicted T2 achievement, whereas T2 effort but not T2 competence positively predicted T3 achievement. There seemed to be a developmental pattern suggesting a shift from a strong association of achievement with competence beliefs to a strong association with effort beliefs as Chinese students matured.