Profiles of achievement goal orientations among adolescents with different SES background before and during the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to identify profiles of achievement goal orientations and transitions between these profiles among adolescents from different socioeconomic backgrounds before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. A sample of 1268 adolescents (51.7% females; M_age = 14.87; SD_age = 0.39) participated in four waves of data collection: One took place pre-pandemic (at the start of 9th grade) and three took place during the Covid-19 pandemic. Latent transition analyses revealed four profiles of achievement goal orientations at each study wave: moderately motivated, success-oriented, mastery-oriented, and unmotivated. Most adolescents remained in the same profile or transitioned to a similar one across subsequent study waves. However, some more substantive, mostly unfavourable patterns of transitions between the profiles were also observed, especially among highly motivated adolescents. The latter patterns coincided with pandemic-related online learning periods. Results also showed a large motivational disadvantage among students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, which was particularly pronounced before the pandemic, but remained salient throughout the study.

KEYWORDS:

• Achievement goal orientations
• Covid-19
• SES
• person-oriented approach
• latent transition analysis

Authors’ contributions

RE conceived of the study, managed its planning and implementation, and drafted the manuscript; RV performed data handling and statistical analyses, described and visualized the results; RV, SR, BS, AA contributed to the study design, data collection, and drafting of the manuscript; SB consulted on the study design and contributed to drafting of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethical aspects of the study were reviewed and approved by the Civil Society and Sustainability research group at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology (protocol no. V19-1253-12, issued on 11 October 2019).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, RE, upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2022.2122435

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Research Council of Lithuania (grant agreement no. S-MIP-19-26), LMTLT.