Testing interest and self-efficacy as predictors of academic self-regulation and achievement

• Published in: Contemporary educational psychology Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 86 - 99
• Main Authors: Lee, Woogul, Lee, Myung-Jin, Bong, Mimi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.04.2014; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Achievement; Biological and medical sciences; Educational psychology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Goals; Grade goal; Interest; Middle School Students; Middle Schools; Motivation; Promotion; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure; Self Efficacy; Self-regulation; Selfefficacy; Selfregulation; Interest; Grade goal; Achievement; Self-efficacy; Self-regulation; Human; Academic achievement; Motivation; Adolescent; Self efficacy; Self regulation; Predictive factor; Self-interest
• ISSN: 0361-476X; 1090-2384
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2014.02.002

•Interest predicts self-regulation above and beyond self-efficacy and grade goals.•Interest directly predicts self-regulation but not grade goals or achievement.•Self-regulation fully mediates the relationship of interest to achievement.•Grade goals fully mediate the relationship of self-efficacy to self-regulation.•However, goals partially mediate the relationship of self-efficacy to achievement. We examined whether individual interest, as an affective motivational variable, could predict academic self-regulation and achievement, above and beyond what academic self-efficacy predicted. We tested the relationships between academic self-efficacy, individual interest, grade goals, self-regulation, and achievement of Korean middle school students (N=500) in four different subject areas. Consistent with previous findings, self-efficacy predicted achievement both directly and indirectly via grade goals. Self-efficacy also predicted self-regulation, but only when grade goals mediated the relationship. Supporting our hypothesis, individual interest functioned as a correlated yet independent and direct predictor of self-regulation. It also predicted achievement, but only when self-regulation mediated the relationship. We thus suggest that academic self-regulation could be encouraged through the promotion of two distinct motivational sources, academic self-efficacy and individual interest. We further suggest that the pathways linking individual interest to academic self-regulation and achievement may differ from those linking academic self-efficacy to the same variables.