Does self-determination predict the school engagement of four different motivation types in adolescence?

Abstract

In order to enhance our understanding of inter-individual differences in scholastic motivation, this study examined if self-determination predicts the school engagement of four different motivation types (MT) in a large sample of adolescent students (N = 1088) from Brandenburg, Germany: (1) peer-dependent MT, (2) teacher-dependent MT, (3) peer-and-teacher-dependent MT and (4) peer-and-teacher-independent MT. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), the four types were first compared on latent variables (perceived self-determination and school engagement) and then, a latent multigroup SEM was conducted to test whether self-determination (competence, relatedness and autonomy) would predict emotional and behavioural school engagement separately by MT. The findings underscore the relevance of the typology as well as important inter-individual differences in the association between students’ psychological needs (competence, relatedness and autonomy) and their school engagement.

Keywords:

• scholastic motivation
• social relationships
• self-determination
• school engagement
• multigroup structural equation modelling

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the principals, teachers and students for their cooperation in making these studies possible.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this chapter was supported by a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation [Schumpeter Fellowship, II/84 452].