2015) Mental toughness in education: exploring relationships with attainment, attendance, behaviour and peer relationships, Educational Psychology, 35:7, 886-907,

The present study investigated gender differences in adolescents' academic motivation and classroom behaviour and gender differences in the extent to which motivation was associated with, and predicted, classroom behaviour. Seven hundred and fifty students (384 boys and 366 girls) aged 11-16 (M age = 14.0, 1.59 SD) completed a questionnaire examining academic motivation and teachers completed assessments of their classroom behaviour. Girls generally reported higher levels of academic motivation, whilst teacher reports of behaviour were poorer for boys. Interestingly, boys' reported levels of academic motivation were significantly more closely associated with teacher reports of their classroom behaviour. Furthermore, cognitive aspects of boys' motivation were better predictors of their classroom behaviour than behavioural aspects. On the other hand, behavioural aspects of girls' motivation were better predictors of their behaviour. Implications for understanding the relationship between motivation and behaviour among adolescent boys and girls are discussed, in addition to interventions aimed at improving adolescents' classroom behaviour.

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This study investigated gender and age-related differences in academic motivation and classroom behaviour in adolescents. Eight hundred and fifty five students (415 girls and 440 boys) aged 11-16 (M age = 13.96, SD = 1.47) filled in a questionnaire that examined student academic motivation and teachers completed a questionnaire reporting student classroom behaviour. Interestingly, early adolescent boys' (11-12 years) self-reported academic motivation was significantly more closely associated with reports of student classroom behaviour completed by teachers. However, a surprising result was the significant drop in girls' adaptive motivation from early to mid-adolescence (13-14 years) and a significant increase in mid-adolescence (13-14 years). Furthermore, teachers reported a significant increase in negative classroom behaviour in mid-adolescent and late adolescent girls (15-16 years). The need to further understand the association between academic motivation and classroom behaviour at different stages in adolescence, and to design interventions to improve classroom behaviour, is deliberated.

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