Abstract
The impact of achievement motivation and problem-solving style in the context of family support and socioeconomic status on academic performance was investigated in a three year longitudinal study of 235 undergraduate university students aged between 18–25 years. The study tested a path model which shows that family support, socioeconomic status, intrinsic motivation, and problem-solving self-efficacy account for 44% of the variance in Grade Point Average (GPA). The impact of family support and socioeconomic status are mediated through intrinsic motivation and problem-solving style. In addition, a mixed analysis of variance produced interaction effects, which show that motivation and problem-solving style change significantly across the years as a function of performance, thus supporting the maturity-stability hypothesis in individual differences.