Adolescents’ autonomous functioning and implicit theories of ability as predictors of their school achievement and week-to-week study regulation and well-being

Abstract

a b s t r a c tResearch on students' motivation has mainly focused on interpersonal differences rather than on the ongoing, intrapersonal dynamics that forge students' everyday life. In this five-month longitudinal (diary) study, we recruited a sample of 179 high school students from Greece (35.8% males; M age = 16.27; SD = 1.02) to investigate through multilevel analyses the ongoing dynamics of students' motivation. We did so by examining the relation between autonomous functioning and aspects of study regulation (namely, study efforts and procrastination) and well-being (namely, subjective vitality and depressive feelings). After controlling for perceived competence, we found week-to-week autonomous functioning to relate positively to study efforts and subjective vitality and negatively to procrastination and depressive feelings. Interestingly, implicit theories of ability -the degree to which one believes that ability is fixed or amenable -were found to moderate the week-to-week relations of autonomous functioning to study efforts and homework procrastination. In particular, autonomous functioning co-varied positively to study efforts and negatively to homework procrastination only among students who believed that ability is malleable. Also, beliefs that ability is fixed predicted poorer grades, lower mean levels of study efforts, and higher homework procrastination. The results underscore the necessity of taking a more dynamic view when studying motivational phenomena and the importance of jointly considering the implicit theory framework and self-determination theory.

The relationship between implicit theories of intelligence, attainment and socio‐demographic factors in a UK sample of primary school children

“…Although the relationships were relatively small, they were in line with the effect sizes reported in previous research (e.g. Gonida et al ., ; Da Fonseca et al ., ; Romero et al ., ; Mouratidis et al ., ), and were present in both English and Maths performance, indicating that believing in the malleability of intelligence may play a role in improved outcomes across subjects. It was also found that measures of gender, FSM eligibility and SEN status were all related to attainment in Maths and English in the expected direction, with girls attaining higher than boys, and eligibility for FSM and SEN status being associated with lower attainment.…”

How Teachers’ and Students’ Mindsets in Learning Have Been Studied: Research Findings on Mindset and Academic Achievement

“…For example, Yeager, Trzesniewski, Tirri, Nokelainen, and Dweck (2011) discussed the negative role in attribution of a fixed mindset and the positive role of intervention in emotion with a growth mindset. Moreover, some of the studies reviewed (e.g., Cury et al, 2008;Zeng et al, 2016;Mouratidis et al, 2017) indicated that attributions and emotions were important mediators between mindset and achievement. Secondly, we excluded studies that were not written in English.…”

“…A Greek study indicated that mindset was found to moderate the week-to-week relation of autonomous functioning to study effort and homework procrastination; it also affected student well-being, such as subjective vitality, and feelings of depression and thereby had a direct influence on academic achievement (Mouratidis et al, 2017). For example, a fixed mindset demonstrated lower mean levels of study effort, higher amounts of homework, and poorer grades.…”

Begin-of-school-year perceived autonomy-support and structure as predictors of end-of-school-year study efforts and procrastination: the mediating role of autonomous and controlled motivation

“…Prior research has provided evidence for the positive link between autonomous functioning and study effort (e.g. Liu et al, 2014;Mouratidis, Michou, & Vassiou, 2017) as autonomous motivation is more likely to propel students to exert effort in their studies even in the face of difficulties (León et al, 2015).…”