The role of motivation and puberty hormones in adolescents' academic engagement and disengagement: A latent growth modeling study

Abstract

The significant decline in academic engagement through the early stages of adolescence is well known, however, the relative contribution of the key factors explaining these adolescent patterns over time requires further investigation. Motivation has been a dominant research focus in past decades, while less empirical attention has been given to the comparative effects of puberty hormones (specifically, sex steroid hormones: estradiol and testosterone) that are often the subject of popular “storm and stress” stereotyping regarding adolescent development. From a baseline sample of 342 young people (11–13 years of age, 55 % males) assessed annually across 3 years, we examined the role of motivation (self-efficacy and valuing) and key puberty hormones in predicting males' and females' academic engagement and disengagement trajectories, controlling for personal and background attributes. Latent growth modeling demonstrated that: (a) compared to puberty hormones, self-efficacy and valuing were more strongly associated with engagement (positively) and disengagement (negatively) for both males and females, (b) puberty hormones were more strongly linked to students' disengagement than to their engagement, and (c) the significant links between puberty hormones and disengagement were more salient and consistent across time for males—with higher levels of testosterone and estradiol individually associated with higher disengagement. These findings are discussed in the context of psycho-educational and biopsychological perspectives on adolescents' academic development and hold implications for how to motivate and engage them in developmentally appropriate ways at school.