Motivation and engagement among Indigenous (Aboriginal Australian) and non-Indigenous students

Figures & data

Table 1. Multilevel hierarchical regression model with Indigenous/non-Indigenous status predicting motivation and engagement.

	Self-efficacy	Valuing	Mastery	Planning	Task manage	Persist	Anxiety	Failure avoid	Uncertain cont	Self-handicap	Disengage
	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)
Step 1
Fixed effects
Indigenous (Y)	−0.30^e (.05)*	−0.08 (.05)	−0.21^a (.05)*	−0.06 (.06)	−0.12 (.06)	−0.14^c (.05)	0.19 (.07)	0.60^g (.07)*	0.54^g (.07)*	0.59^g (.06)*	0.36^c (.06)*
Random effects
Level 2 (School)	0.03 (.01)*	0.03 (.01)*	0.03 (.01)*	0.06 (.01)*	0.07 (.02)*	0.04 (.01)*	0.10 (.02)*	0.08 (.02)*	0.07 (.02)*	0.06 (.01)*	0.10 (.02)*
Level 1  (student/Resid)	1.01 (.01)*	1.10 (.01)*	.94 (.01)*	1.48 (.02)*	1.47 (.02)*	1.22 (.01)*	1.82 (.02)*	2.06 (.02)*	1.81 (.02)*	1.68 (.02)*	1.63 (.02)*
−2*log-likelihood	46,664	48,022	45,578	52,896	52,881	49,750	56,340	58,357	56,234	55,039	54,506
Step 2
Fixed effects
Indigenous (Y)	−0.17^f (.06)	−0.01 (.06)	−0.14^b (.06)	−0.06 (.07)	−0.08 (.07)	−0.05^d (.07)	0.19 (08)	0.48^h (.09)*	0.31^h (.08)*	0.49^h (.08)*	0.31^d (.08)*
Age	−0.05 (.01)*	−0.14 (.01)*	−0.05 (.01)*	−0.11 (.01)*	−0.06 (.01)*	−0.08 (.01)*	0.09 (.01)*	0.12 (.01)*	0.06 (.01)*	0.11 (.01)*	0.19 (.01)*
Gender (M)	−0.11 (.03)*	−0.08 (.03)	−0.21 (.03)*	−0.19 (.04)*	−0.31 (.03)*	−0.13 (.03)*	−0.57(.04)*	−0.03 (.04)	0.05 (.04)	0.21 (.04)*	0.16 (.04)*
SES	−0.03 (.01)*	−0.05 (.01)*	−0.04 (.01)*	−0.05 (.02)	−0.05 (.02)	−0.05 (.02)	0.01 (.02)	−0.03 (.02)	−0.04 (.02)	−0.02 (.02)	0.02 (.02)
Prior achievement	0.32 (.01)*	0.17 (.01)*	0.18 (.01)*	0.21 (.01)*	0.21 (.01)*	0.33 (.02)*	−0.09 (.02)*	−0.14 (.02)*	−0.42 (.01)*	0.27 (.01)*	−0.20 (.01)*
Random effects
Level 2 (school)	0.02 (.01)	0.02 (.01)	0.02 (.01)	0.07 (.02)*	0.07 (.02)*	0.03 (.01)*	0.08 (.02)*	0.10 (.02)*	0.06 (.02)*	0.05 (.01)*	0.11 (.03)*
Level 1  (student/Resid)	0.92 (.01)*	1.06 (.02)*	0.87 (.01)*	1.40 (.02)*	1.38 (.02)*	1.10 (.02)*	1.73 (.02)*	2.06 (.03)*	1.68 (.02)*	1.61 (.02)*	1.61 (.02)*
−2*log-likelihood	28,890	30,322	28,353	33,198	33,136	30,802	35,532	36345	35,226	34,770	34,752
Δ −2*log-likelihood	17,774	17,700	17,225	19,698	19,745	18,948	20,808	22012	21,008	20,269	19,754

*p < .002 (after Bonferroni correction).

For each motivation and engagement factor, the following superscripts denote significant differences between Step 1 and Step 2: superscripts ^a and ^b at p < .10; superscripts ^c and ^d at p < .05; superscripts ^e and ^f at p < .01; superscripts ^g and ^h at p < .001.

We note the negative SES effect for self-efficacy, valuing, and mastery orientation and further investigated this. We re-ran the models for self-efficacy, valuing, and mastery orientation without prior achievement (as SES is associated with achievement; Sirin, 2005) and found that all three SES predictive effects were no longer statistically significant – suggesting that after controlling for prior achievement, there is less adaptive variance remaining for SES (leading to its significant negative effects).

Figure 1. Positive and negative motivation and engagement predicting educational outcomes for Indigenous students, controlling for age, gender, SES, and prior achievement. *p < .05, **p < .01, and ***p < .001, ns: not statistically significant. Note 1. Unstandardised coefficients are shown; Note 2. L1 and L2 are random variance estimates; Note 3. Dashed lines represent non-significant (p > .05) parameters.

Table 2. Multilevel regression model predicting external correlates for Indigenous students.

	Aspirations	Buoyancy	Homework	Achievement
	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)	Est (SE)
Fixed effects
Positive motivation	0.99 (.06)***	0.45 (.08)***	0.26 (.05)***	0.37 (.13)**
Negative motivation	−0.14 (.06)*	−0.02 (.08)	−0.16 (.05)**	−0.15 (.13)
Age	0.10 (.04)*	0.01 (.05)	−0.06 (.03)*	−0.10 (.14)
Gender (M)	0.05 (.12)	0.32 (.15)*	−0.21 (.09)*	−0.59 (.28)*
SES	−0.06 (.05)	−0.10 (.06)	0.03 (.04)	0.28 (.16)
Prior achievement	0.07 (.06)	0.14 (.07)*	0.08 (.05)	−0.07 (.12)
Random effects
Level 2 (school)	0.01 (.01)	0.06 (.06)	0.01 (.01)	0.01 (.01)
Level 1 (student/residual)	0.93 (.08)***	1.44 (.12)***	0.62 (.05)***	1.03 (.19)***
−2*log-likelihood	806	943	694	156

*p < .05, **p < .01, and ***p < .001.

Sirin, S. R. (2005). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review of research. Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 417–453. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543075003417

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