Self-control as predictor of school grades, life balance, and flow in adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Recently, several studies have shown that strength of self-control is a crucial factor in determining positive outcomes in individuals' lives. Most attention has been directed to the relationships that self-control has with learning and academic achievement. AIMS: This article analyses the effects of self-control not only on school grades but also on the experience of life balance and flow. It is theorized that students with a higher level of self-control are better able to distribute their time in a satisfying way over academic and leisure matters, and are better able to shield their studying against distractions. SAMPLES: A total of 697 eighth graders with a mean age of 13.4 years participated in the longitudinal study. METHOD: Students completed a questionnaire containing measures of self-control, school grades, subjective life balance, and flow while studying at the beginning and at the end of the school year. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationships between the constructs. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results of cross-lagged analyses show that self-control predicted school grades, life balance, and flow. The findings suggest that self-control may assist adolescents to be better prepared, not only for school, but also for coordinating their investments in different areas of their lives.

Reciprocal relationships between value orientation and motivational interference during studying and leisure.

BACKGROUND: Motivational interference is defined as the amount of impairment in a target activity due to the incentives of a non-chosen attractive alternative. The amount to which pupils experience motivational interference while studying or while performing a leisure activity in a school-leisure conflict situation is seen as depending on the values they attach to achievement and well-being. At the same time, values may also be effects of frequent experience of motivational interference in the respective areas. AIMS: The study is aimed at investigating the reciprocal relationship between personal value orientations and the experience of motivational interference during studying and leisure. SAMPLE: A total of 363 pupils (sixth to eighth graders at the time of first measurement) completed the same questionnaire twice in a 2-year interval. METHOD: The questionnaire included measures of achievement and well-being value orientation and the experience of motivational interference during studying and during leisure in school-leisure conflicts. For this, two scenarios were created. In regression analyses, achievement and well-being value orientations as well as their interaction terms were used as predictors for experience of motivational interference at t(2) while controlling for experience of motivational interference at t(1), and vice versa. Additionally in path models, these relations were tested in an integrative way. RESULTS: Pupils' achievement value orientations were connected to differential changes in experiencing motivational interference during leisure and during studying in one scenario but only for pupils low or medium in well-being value orientation. Conversely, experience of motivational interference at t(1) was related to changes in value orientations 2 years later. High motivational interference during studying led to an increase in well-being value orientation, while high motivational interference during leisure was followed by a decrease in well-being value orientation and an increase in achievement value orientation. Overall, path models supported these results. CONCLUSIONS: The results are discussed in terms of value change and are linked to self-control and motivation research.