Unattainable educational goals: Disengagement, reengagement with alternative goals, and consequences for subjective well-being

Boudrenghien, Gentiane; Frenay, Mariane; Bourgeois, Étienne

doi:10.1016/j.erap.2012.04.002

Cited by 21 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In this context, it is important to note that social pressure may lead students to persist in studies where they are not happy. However, it has been shown that it is essential for the student’s well-being to disengage from studies that do not suit him (Boudrenghien, Frenay, & Bourgeois, 2012). In this context, it is essential to consider interventions for students but also for their relatives in order to make them realize the impact that this explicit or implicit pressure can have on the student’s well-being and persistence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Academic Persistence through the Theory of Planned Behavior

Roland

Frenay

Boudrenghien

2016

Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Pr

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High drop-out rates among first-year university students have led many researchers to attempt to gain a better understanding of academic persistence. However, despite this extensive literature, only a few studies have taken normative factors into account. These normative factors may be an essential factor of influence for persistence as it is already the case for other behaviors. We therefore decided to study whether including injunctive and descriptive norms in the investigation might improve the understanding of persistence. To this end, we focused on the theory of planned behaviour which considers for background, motivational, and normative factors. Seven hundred and twenty-seven first-year college students were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire. A structural equation modeling technique revealed that the model including injunctive norms fits better with the data than the model without norms. However, this was not the case with descriptive norms. These results are examined in the Discussion section. Finally, directions for future research and practical implications are suggested.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Academic Persistence through the Theory of Planned Behavior

Roland

Frenay

Boudrenghien

2016

Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Pr

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“…Although some past literature in different contexts has defended the importance of perseverance in personal goals and confidence in their attainability (e.g., Emmons, 1986;Taylor and Brown, 1988), more recent evidence has shown that in situations where goals become unattainable, it is more adaptive to give them up and start a process to search for and engage in other goals (Wrosch et al, 2003a;Wrosch, 2011). In fact, evidence suggests that when people are highly committed to unattainable goals, the positive impact of goal commitment on well-being disappears or even becomes negative (Boudrenghien et al, 2012) because they invest personal resources without getting results and, thus, accumulate failure experiences. If some people in these situations are not able to achieve goal adjustment, they are likely to experience a decrease in their quality of life (Wrosch et al, 2013), an increase in psychological distress levels (Carver and Scheier, 1999;Wrosch et al, 2007a), or even depressive symptoms (Brandtstädter and Renner, 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived Coach-Created Motivational Climates as Predictors of Athletes’ Goal Reengagement: The Mediational Role of Goal Motives

et al. 2021

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Athletes have to face several challenges during the sport season, and one of them could involve dealing with unattainable goals. In these situations, being able to reengage in other goals as a form of goal adjustment and in response to contextual demands is adaptive. According to previous literature, some aspects of the athletes’ social context, such as coach-created motivational climates, could encourage more adaptive responses in athletes, and so it is possible that these climates would also promote athletes’ goal regulation and goal reengagement. The purpose of this study was twofold: to analyze whether athletes’ perception of empowering and disempowering climates were related to their goal reengagement through the mediation of goal motives; and to examine the interaction between the two climates when they predict reengagement through athletes’ goal motives. Participants were 414 Spanish university athletes (49.5% male, 50.5% female) who belonged to different university teams, with ages ranging from 17 to 33 years old (M = 20.61, SD = 2.58). In the sport facilities, all of them completed questionnaires that evaluated their perception of empowering and disempowering climates, their goal motives, and their goal reengagement. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results showed that perceived empowering climate positively predicted autonomous goal motives, which in turn had a positive relationship with goal reengagement. Conversely, perceived disempowering climate positively predicted controlled goal motives, which were not related to goal reengagement. Thus, we only found support for the indirect relationship between perceived empowering climate and goal reengagement through autonomous goal motives. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that interaction effects between perceived empowering and disempowering climates were not significant in the prediction of goal reengagement through goal motives. Findings revealed that the perception of empowering climates promotes athletes’ goal reengagement when goals become unattainable via the increase in their autonomous goal motives. Conversely, when athletes perceive disempowering climates, they have more controlled goal motives, which are not related to goal reengagement. In addition, the study supports the need to educate coaches to create more empowering and less disempowering climates.

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“…Given the benefits of PGA for both wellbeing and goal pursuit (e.g. Boudrenghien et al 2012;Gamble et al 2020;Huang et al 2017), this may be an important finding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…More recent studies corroborate Brunstein's (1993) findings. Boudrenghien et al (2012) examined the effects of goal commitment and PGA in students who had received secondary school leaving qualifications. They found that "the positive effect of goal commitment on subjective well-being….disappeared or even changed direction when the educational goal was perceived as unattainable" (Boudrenghien et al 2012, p.158).…”

Section: Perceived Goal Attainability and Goal Commitmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Obstacles vs. Resources - Comparing the Effects of a Problem-Focused, Solution-Focused and Combined Approach on Perceived Goal Attainability and Commitment

Abdulla

Woods

2020

Int J Appl Posit Psychol

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Previous research suggests that solution-focused (SF) questions may be superior to problem-focused (PF) alternatives for a range of practical and psychological outcomes. However, a great deal remains unknown regarding the effects of specific SF (or PF) approaches and the mechanisms through which they occur. The aim of this pre-registered study was to investigate the extent to which SF questions targeting resources have a more positive effect on perceived goal attainability (PGA) and goal commitment than PF questions targeting obstacles or a combination of PF & SF questions targeting both resources and obstacles. 115 students aged 15–16 were randomly assigned to either (i) a SF condition targeting resources, (ii) a PF condition targeting obstacles or (iii) a combined-approach condition targeting both. All participants were asked to identify a challenging area of study before answering condition-specific questions. Although not all statistically significant, results indicated that the SF group had higher mean PGA and goal commitment than both the PF and combined PF & SF group. Effect size estimates were small-to-medium for PGA and small for goal commitment. Results of a mediation analysis suggested that condition had an indirect effect on goal commitment through enhanced PGA. Qualitative data analysis suggested that the PF question was more likely than the SF question to elicit thoughts of self-regulation, whereas the SF question was more likely to elicit thoughts of tools and resources. These findings are consistent with those from previous research and broaden our understanding of SF (vs PF) questions.

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Unattainable educational goals: Disengagement, reengagement with alternative goals, and consequences for subjective well-being

Cited by 21 publications

References 30 publications

Understanding Academic Persistence through the Theory of Planned Behavior

Understanding Academic Persistence through the Theory of Planned Behavior

Perceived Coach-Created Motivational Climates as Predictors of Athletes’ Goal Reengagement: The Mediational Role of Goal Motives

Obstacles vs. Resources - Comparing the Effects of a Problem-Focused, Solution-Focused and Combined Approach on Perceived Goal Attainability and Commitment

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