Which emotional profiles exhibit the best learning outcomes? A person-centered analysis of students’ academic emotions

Abstract

Previous studies on academic emotions have mostly used variable-centered approaches. Although these studies have elucidated the relationships between academic emotions and key academic outcomes, they cannot identify naturally-occurring groups of students defined by distinct academic emotion profiles. In this study, we adopted a person-centered approach to explore whether students can be grouped in terms of distinct academic emotion profiles and whether these groups differed in terms of key academic outcomes. Cluster analyses showed four distinct profiles across both domain-general (Study 1) and domain-specific (Study 2) academic emotions. Students with high levels of positive academic emotions and low levels of negative academic emotions exhibited the most adaptive educational outcomes followed by students characterized by high levels of positive emotions and moderately high levels of shame. The most maladaptive profile was exhibited by students who are low in positive academic emotions and high in negative academic emotions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.