Doing better (or worse) than one's parents: Social status, mobility, and performance‐avoidance goals

Abstract

Taken together, the results of these studies support that one's actual social position and, even more, the social position one is about to reach are reliable predictors of performance-avoidance goals.

Facing the risk of upward mobility: Performance-avoidance goals and social class among high-school students

“…As previously mentioned, social mobility involves identity change (Amiot et al, 2010), a change that seems to lead lower-class students to use protective mechanisms because they are afraid of potential failure (e.g., performanceavoidance goals). This result is consistent with previous research showing that lower-class students who endorsed more performance-avoidance goals than higher-class students were those who were the most likely to be engaged in the upward mobility process (e.g., high achievers, or students who are led to think they are performing better than they usually do, Jury et al, 2018). In addition, the present study provides evidence about the causal link between social mobility and performance-avoidance goal endorsement.…”

“…Further support for this explanation in terms of the upward mobility process can be found in recent research testing the effect of positive and negative feedback on the evolution of performance-avoidance goal endorsement (Jury et al, 2018). Indeed, this research indicates that the level of performance-avoidance goal endorsement increases after positive feedback for lower-class students and after negative feedback for higher-class students, supporting the idea that mobility is a situation that favors performance-avoidance goal endorsement.…”

“…The goal of the present research was to test the role of the social mobility process in explaining why low-SES high achievers usually tend to endorse more performance-avoidance goals than high-SES high achievers (Jury et al, , 2018. In addition, our goal was to document further effects of the endorsement of such goals on academic performance.…”

“…However, these studies present limitations that have to be addressed before we can draw conclusions about the role of upward mobility in explaining the differences in performanceavoidance goals and performance as a function of social class. First, in these studies, mobility was either evoked as a possible mechanism to account for the moderation of the effect of social class by academic level (Jury et al, 2015a(Jury et al, , 2015b, or measured as an individual perception (Jury et al, 2018). Manipulating the salience of the upward mobility process would make it possible to draw clearer conclusions about the causal link between social mobility and performance-avoidance goal endorsement.…”

Adolescent Academic, Social and Future Achievement Goal Orientations: Implications for Achievement by Gender and Parental Education

“…Future showed a particularly strong link to achievement for students with lower educational family background. These students may prioritize future goals, such as being able to choose a further education and a liked job, as a strategy to accomplish what Jury et al (2018) term an upward mobility, in order to build or secure their future lives as adults differently than their parents. We found the achievements of students from lower educational family background to benefit extra of being socially engaged in school and endorsing social responsibility goals.…”