Abstract This qualitative study examined how student motivation is described, supported, and understood by students, teachers, and parents in the Greek school located in Gökçeada (Imvros), Turkey. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (EST), the study addressed three questions: (a) how students interpret their motivation in daily school life, (b) how teachers and parents observe and foster motivation, and (c) how relational, institutional, and cultural factors shape motivational experiences across ecological levels. Data were collected through four focus group interviews with lower secondary school students ( N = 6), upper secondary school students ( N = 6), teachers ( N = 4), and parents ( N = 5), and analyzed thematically using a combined inductive–deductive approach. Participants described motivational experiences that could be situated along the SDT continuum (from disengagement to interest/enjoyment), while inductive themes across stakeholder accounts also highlighted teacher influence, perceived competence, and parental scaffolding. Teachers tended to emphasize structure, discipline, and observable engagement, whereas parents highlighted cultural identity, routines, and long-term aspirations. Viewed through an ecological lens, motivation was described as co-constructed across systems: microsystem relationships, mesosystem home–school alignment, exosystem institutional constraints, macrosystem cultural hybridity, and chronosystem disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. By integrating SDT with EST analytically, the study demonstrates how the quality of motivational regulation is co-constructed across systems rather than residing solely within individual students. The findings offer context-sensitive insights into motivational processes in minority and bilingual school environments and highlight the importance of examining stakeholder perspectives comparatively to understand convergences and misalignments in motivational support.

Academic self-efficacy (ASE) is an established predictor of academic attainment. This longitudinal study investigates the development of ASE at the beginning of upper secondary education in Finland, focusing on the role of loneliness and school connectedness. Panel data from the first three semesters were analysed using individual-level fixed-effects regression. Results show a declining trend in ASE over time, an increase in loneliness negatively associated with ASE, and a decline in school connectedness that remains positively related to ASE, particularly among vocational students. The findings indicate that addressing loneliness and fostering school connectedness are critical during the transition to upper secondary education.

Abstract To map the complex associations of key antecedents of motivation, this research examined configurations (i.e., profiles) of basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration (of autonomy, competence, and relatedness) in two independent samples of undergraduate students attending universities from two locations in the Pacific region—New Zealand ( N = 385) and Hawaiʻi, USA ( N = 386). Latent profile analyses identified seven profiles in each sample. Of these profiles, in both samples, a high satisfaction and low frustration profile captured the most adaptive pattern of need satisfaction and frustration dimensions and was associated with high/very high levels of eagerness, resilience, and friendship quality factors. In contrast, a low satisfaction and high frustration profile exhibited the most maladaptive combination of need satisfaction and frustration dimensions and had the lowest levels of eagerness and resilience and lower levels of friendship quality than most other profiles. In addition, a profile having low/below average satisfaction and above average/high frustration generally had the poorest friendship quality. These findings provide new and valuable insights into the complex associations of basic psychological needs and into how interrelationships among need satisfaction and frustration dimensions underpin individual differences in eagerness, resilience, and friendship quality. Moreover, they have important educational implications, which are explored in the paper.