The role of cost in adolescent students' maladaptive academic outcomes

Abstract

Motivation wields a tangible impact on students' academic functioning. Among the theoretical frameworks used to explain students' motivation to learn, Eccles et al.'s expectancy-value theory (1983) is one of the most influential. It has been used to investigate students' competence- and value-related beliefs and how they are associated with academic-related choices, learning behaviors, and achievement. In the learning context, cost has mostly been discussed under the expectancy-value framework as a sub-dimension of task value and conceptualized as reflecting the negative aspects of task engagement. The issue of cost has recently attracted growing interest among scholars, providing a way to explain the dynamics of student motivation. However, cost is still underexplored in the empirical literature. In the present study, we assessed adolescent students' perceived cost (i.e., effort cost, opportunity cost, ego cost, and emotional cost) of studying math and examined its unique relations with academic motivation and achievement. Across a series of three studies, we found that cost is empirically distinct from the utility, attainment, and interest components of task value and is closely related to students' maladaptive academic outcomes. In particular, cost showed unique associations with adolescent students' test anxiety, disorganization, adoption of avoidance goals, avoidance intentions, and academic achievement. The present study's findings highlight the importance of including cost as a unique construct alongside value to more fully capture students' motivational dynamics in school.