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The Social Underpinnings of Motivation and Achievement: Investigating the Role of Parents, Teachers, and Peers on Academic Outcomes

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Abstract

High-quality social relationships are important for students’ academic motivation and achievement. However, the specific pathways through which social relationships influence motivation, learning, and achievement are still unclear. Guided by Anderman’s (in: Urdan (ed.), Advances in motivation and achievement, vol. 11: the role of contextual influences on motivation, 1999) social–motivational model, this study tested a conceptual model positing perceived social support from parents, teachers, and peers as predictors of various types of achievement goals (mastery, performance, work avoidance, and social). Goals, in turn, were posited to influence the use of self-regulated learning strategies and subsequent academic achievement. These hypothesized relationships were tested in one path analytic model with a sample of Filipino secondary students (n = 1,026). Results showed that social support from parents, teachers, and peers positively predicted adaptive types of goals. Parent support was negatively associated with a work avoidance goal. Self-regulation positively predicted subsequent academic achievement. Taken together, the findings evinced the relevance of social relationships on academic outcomes. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Our measure of achievement goals only included mastery approach, performance approach, work-avoidance, and social goals which represent the full array of goals captured by the Goal Orientations and Learning Strategies Survey (GOALS-S; Dowson and McInerney 2004). Dowson and McInerney (2004) did not include mastery avoidance and performance avoidance in the GOALS-S because they found that these two goal constructs repeatedly failed to emerge in any of the qualitative interviews (see Dowson and McInerney 2001, 2003). Other researchers have made similar claims about the non-existence or relatively low incidence of mastery avoidance and performance-avoidance goal constructs (Ciani and Sheldon 2010; Fryer and Ginns 2011; Lemos 1996; Sideridis and Mouratidis 2008). Qualitative studies in the Philippine setting have likewise shown that mastery avoidance and performance avoidance goal constructs were not that salient (Bernardo et al. 2008). Given that we confined ourselves to using the GOALS-S and given the lack of support for the salience of performance avoidance and mastery avoidance in the Philippines, we have decided not to measure these two goal constructs. Thus, mastery and performance goals in this study pertain only to mastery-approach and performance-approach goals.

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  1. Learning Sciences Laboratory, National Institute of Education, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore

    Ronnel B. King

  2. Palawan State University, Puerto Princesa, Philippines

    Fraide A. Ganotice Jr.

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King, R.B., Ganotice, F.A. The Social Underpinnings of Motivation and Achievement: Investigating the Role of Parents, Teachers, and Peers on Academic Outcomes. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 23, 745–756 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-013-0148-z

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