Achievement motivation revisited: new longitudinal data to demonstrate its predictive power

Abstract

During recent decades, the classical one‐dimensional concept of achievement motivation has become less popular among motivation researchers. This study aims to revive the concept by demonstrating its predictive power using longitudinal data from two cohort samples, each with 20,000 Dutch secondary school students. Two measures of achievement motivation were constructed on the basis of Hermans' Achievement Motivation Test for Children. Results showed that these measures predicted later educational attainment and achievement, and were related to movements in educational career. Our measures of achievement motivation showed a certain stability over time; this stability decreased, however, with the length of the interval between measurements. In addition, a consistent decrease of motivation with age was found.

Keywords:

• academic achievement
• academic performance
• motivation
• secondary education
• adolescent

Acknowledgements

This project was financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; project number 411‐01‐705). The data were collected in collaboration with Statistics Netherlands (CBS), within the framework of a series of large‐scale longitudinal studies on school careers in secondary education.

Notes

1. Also known as ‘motive to avoid failure’, this is often presented as the counterpart of achievement motivation (‘motive to approach success’; Atkinson, 1957).

2. Most schools offer different tracks. Change of track is possible. It mainly occurs after the first and to a lesser degree also after the second year. Later, if it happens, track change is more common in downward than in upward direction. Upward change usually only occurs after finishing a track successfully.

3. Hustinx, Kuyper, Van der Werf, and Zijsling (2005a, 2005b) give a full description of this data set, which was recently made available for use by the scientific community.

4. The distances between these tracks can be considered approximately similar, so it is possible to scale them on an interval scale.