Self-efficacy and achievement goals as motivational links between perceived contexts and achievement

Abstract

The purposes of the present study were to investigate (a) how the subjectively perceived achievement goals of significant others would predict the academic self-efficacy and achievement goals of Korean adolescents and (b) how those self-efficacy and achievement goals in turn predicted their achievement. We also compared these predictive relationships between 339 elementary and 507 middle school students. The perceived achievement goals of teachers, peers and parents made unique contributions to students' self-efficacy and achievement goals in mathematics. The perceived achievement goals of teachers demonstrated stronger relationships with students' motivation in the elementary school than middle school samples, whereas those of peers and parents showed comparable relationships across the two samples. The perceived performance goals of peers and parents displayed particularly strong links to students' motivation. Among the motivation variables, self-efficacy again emerged as the most consistent and powerful predictor of achievement. Our results confirmed perceived contexts and motivation as critical contributors to students' achievement in school.