Relationships between achievement goal profiles, motivational and affective dimensions in different level students in Italian and Mathematics

This work focused on achievement goal profiles in relation to some motivational and affective dimensions linked to learning in Italian and Mathematics, considering multiple goal theory. The participants were 435 Italian students (aged 10, 13 and 17 years) who completed a 64-item questionnaire. The main aims were to identify and compare goal profiles in the two disciplines, and to investigate their links with other motivational (self-efficacy, task value) and affective (test anxiety, pleasantness) aspects. Results suggest that even if goal profiles characterizing the two disciplines are slightly different, they have similar associations with the other dimensions. For both disciplines three profiles emerged: high mastery (MG), performance-approach (PAPG) and performance-avoidance goals (PAVG); high MG, low PAPG and PAVG; low MG, PAPG and PAVG. For Mathematics, a fourth profile was present, with lower performance goals than the third. As regards the investigated relationships, for both disciplines the first and second profiles were associated to higher levels of self-efficacy, task value and pleasantness. Test anxiety was lower than the others for the fourth profile in Mathematics and higher than the first for the second profile in Italian. Moreover, for both disciplines achievement was positively correlated with self-efficacy and pleasantness. Finally, different developmental trends in the two disciplines were revealed, with greater persistence of those profiles considered more adaptive for Italian at increasing ages. In conclusion, complexity emerges in the way in which different achievement goals combine their effects in different contexts, soliciting further analyses on specific disciplines