Beyond academic achievement goals: The importance of social achievement goals in explaining gender differences in self-handicapping

Abstract

Boys show less adaptive behaviour and engagement than girls at school. Much research has examined gender differences in academic motivation to explain gender differences in school engagement. However, students engage in schools both academically and socially, and gender differences in social motivation may further contribute to the gender gap in academic engagement. In this study, 536 secondary school students in England (ages 13-14) reported their social achievement goals, academic achievement goals, and self-handicapping behaviours. Boys were more likely to adopt social demonstration goals, performance-approach and -avoidance goals, and reported greater behavioural self-handicapping. Moreover, structural equation models showed that social demonstration goals uniquely mediated the relationship between gender and self- handicapping, beyond the effect of performance-avoidance goals. Results highlight the importance of social achievement goals in explaining gender differences in self-handicapping. The findings suggest that educators need to attend to adolescents’ social goals in addition to their academic goals in secondary school.

Same mindset, different goals and motivational frameworks: Profiles of mindset-based meaning systems

“…The results also have implications for raising boys' achievement in schools. Past research indicates that boys adopt more performance goals that aim at demonstrating competence, and this performance goal pursuit is associated with increased self-handicapping, reduced persistence, and worse academic performance (Kenney-Benson et al, 2006;Yu & McLellan, 2019). Our findings suggest that the maladaptive nature of boys' performance goals might be explained, in part, by their tendency to combine performance goals with a fixed mindset.…”

“…In addition, girls on average tend to persist longer when facing challenges (Schnell et al, 2015), and this finding holds across self-report and behavioural measures (Gilmore et al, 2003;Vermeer et al, 2000). In contrast, when encountering difficulties, boys tend to protect their self-worth by employing self-handicapping strategies to discount low ability as the cause of failure (McCrea et al, 2008;Yu & McLellan, 2019).…”

“…When goals are assessed regarding a verbal domain or school motivation in general, girls tend to report more mastery goals (Martin, 2004;Peterson & Kaplan, 2016), but this tendency often diminishes or disappears in maths-related domains (Butler, 2008;Friedel et al, 2007). In contrast, boys tend to prioritise the goals of validating competence or avoiding displays of incompetence (i.e., performance-approach andavoidance goals; Peterson & Kaplan, 2016;Yu & McLellan, 2019). Studies on goal profiles similarly show that girls are overrepresented in profiles with dominant mastery goals, whereas boys are overrepresented in profiles with dominant performance goals (Luo et al, 2011;Schwinger et al, 2016).…”

Presenting a Model of Self-handicapping Based on Time Perspective and Intelligence Beliefs mediated by Academic Self-efficacy in Students

“…Self-empowerment is a behavior or choice of actions to protect a person's self-concept against the negative consequences of failure, which provides a good opportunity for people to attribute failure to external factors and success to internal factors (Yu & McLellan, 2019). In other words, self-empowerment means planning for the obstacles to successful performance that one creates to maintain one's value and selfconcept (Yildirim & Demir, 2020).…”

العلاقات السببیة بین بعض متغیرات الدافعیة والشخصیة والإعاقة الأکادیمیة والتحصیل الدراسی لدى طلاب الفرقة الأولى بکلیة التربیة

“…) . (Greenlees, Jones, Holder & Thelwell, 2006, Chen, Chen, Lin, Kee, Kuo & Shui, 2008, Nordbotten, 2011 (Schwinger & Stiensmeier-Pelster, 2011, 699 Gadbois, 2007, Chang, 2010, Gadbois & Sturgeon, 2011, Schwinger & Stiensmeier-Pelster, 2011, Ganda& Boruchovitch, 2015, Yavuzer, 2015, Azarnava& Boland, 2016, Ferradás, et al, 2016b, Ferradás, et al, 2019, Karami, et al, 2020 (Chang, 2010, Yavuzer, 2015, Kumari& Venugopal, 2018, Yu & McLellan, 2019) . (Ferradás, et al, 2019(Ferradás, et al, , 2218 (Ferradás, et al, 2016b, 236 Gadbois, ( 2007, Yavuzer, 2015 (Clarke, 2018, 10) .…”