Abstract
The current cross-national study investigates the potential buffering role of socio-motivational relationships for the association of achievement drive (AD) and test anxiety (TX) in secondary school students from Canada and Germany. One thousand and eighty-eight students (54% girls, Mage = 13.71, SD = 0.53, age span 12–15 years) from the state of Brandenburg and 389 students from Quebéc (55.9% girls, Mage = 13.43, SD = 0.82, age span 12–16 years) were asked about their socio-motivational relationships with their teachers and peers, their drive for achievement, and TX. Multigroup latent moderated structural equations were conducted to test for the moderator role of socio-motivational relationships that would buffer feelings of TX related to the drive for achievement. The analyses revealed the two-sided role socio-motivational relationships can have for students with different levels of AD; intensifying or mitigating feelings of TX. Thereby, the results of this study extend the buffering hypothesis by Cohen and Wills (1985). Cross-national differences between Canada and Germany were found concerning the studied moderators on the association of AD and TX: While for German students teacher–student relationships acted as moderator, for Canadian students student–student relationships and teachers acting as positive motivators displayed a moderator role.
Highlights
The drive for achievement has been found to be a basic human need which includes the individual’s desire to successfully accomplish challenges, succeed in competitions, and excel in activities evaluated as important (Atkinson, 1957; McClelland et al, 1976; Covington, 1992)
In light of the buffering hypothesis (Cohen and Wills, 1985), we investigated whether socio-motivational relationships, such as teacher–student relationships (TSR), student–student relationships (SSR), teachers acting as positive motivators, and peers acting as positive motivators, can function as moderators in the relationship between Achievement drive (AD) and test anxiety (TX)
In order to determine which model had the best data fit, the unrestricted model [χ2(24) = 36.10, p < 0.001, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.99, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.98, SRMR = 0.02, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.03 (0.01–0.04)] was compared to the weak measurement model [χ2(28) = 37.36, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.99, SRMR = 0.02, RMSEA = 0.02 (0.01–0.04)], which was compared to the strong measurement model [χ2(32) = 81.21, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.95, SRMR = 0.04, RMSEA = 0.05 (0.03–0.06)] by running a chi-square difference test
Summary
The drive for achievement has been found to be a basic human need which includes the individual’s desire to successfully accomplish challenges, succeed in competitions, and excel in activities evaluated as important (Atkinson, 1957; McClelland et al, 1976; Covington, 1992). Achievement drive (AD) has been defined in many different ways, yet it is usually described as a mentality by which individuals compare themselves and their performances to the standards of others against whom they stand in competition (Singh, 2011). It has been understood as a combination of personality. In the context of education, achievement is actively promoted as an absolute necessity and it is given high priority (Kaplan and Maehr, 2007) This notion is accompanied by teachers’ beliefs and instructional practices, which are mainly oriented toward mainstream cultural themes such as competition and individualism (Boykin et al, 2005; Tyler et al, 2006). Besides academic goals such as learning, improving performance, demonstrating ability, and outperforming others, social goals such as enhancing a sense of belonging, obtaining social approval by peers, teachers, parents, and gaining tangible rewards for academic performances were identified as the main rationale for students’ AD (Dowson and McInerney, 2003; Levy et al, 2004; Hoferichter and Raufelder, 2014)
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