The effects of gratitude and kindness on life satisfaction, positive emotions, negative emotions, and COVID-19 anxiety: An online pilot experimental study.

The continuous surge in the number of confirmed diagnoses and fatalities associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused debilitating economic, educational, social, and psychological issues. However, little is known about how psychological interventions may boost well-being outcomes amid the pandemic. This research addresses this gap by examining the effects of gratitude and kindness interventions on life satisfaction, positive emotions, negative emotions, and COVID-19 anxiety via an online pilot experimental study. A 3-week online pilot experiment was implemented among 107 Filipino undergraduate students (M = 20.27; SD = 1.10). These participants were randomly assigned to kindness (n = 37), gratitude (n = 32), and control (n = 38) conditions. The results showed that there were significant differences on positive emotions when controlling for the baseline well-being, gratitude, and kindness scores across all conditions (i.e., gratitude, kindness, and control). Participants assigned in the gratitude and kindness conditions had significantly higher scores on positive emotions than those in the control condition. The findings point to the emotional benefits associated with promoting gratitude and kindness during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research contributes to scarce literature on the applicability of well-being interventions in non-Western cultural contexts.

Achievement goal profiles among adolescent males and females.

Achievement goal theory has long been a dominant model in the study of student motivation. However, a relatively small number of researchers have investigated gender differences in achievement goals or have considered the possible role that social and extrinsic goals may play in student academic motivation. Adopting a person-centered multiple goals perspective based on personal investment theory, this longitudinal study investigated whether males and females shared similar goal profiles, and whether the predictors (facilitating conditions) and outcomes (learning processes, task perseverance, and future aspirations) of these profiles were equivalent across genders. Profiles were extracted from 8 types of academic goals, based on a large sample of Hong Kong high school students (N = 7,848). Findings revealed 5 distinctive profiles for both males and females. Although the relative size of these profiles differed across samples of male and female students, the results show that 4 of these profiles were mostly equivalent across genders. Predictors of membership into these profiles were also equivalent across genders, whereas their relative outcomes were specific to gender. (PsycINFO Database Record

Do goals lead to outcomes or can it be the other way around?: Causal ordering of mastery goals, metacognitive strategies, and achievement.

BACKGROUND: Goal theory research has mostly focused on the unidirectional effects of goals on learning strategies and academic achievement. Reciprocal relationships have mostly been neglected. AIMS: The primary aim of this study was to examine the reciprocal relations and causal ordering of mastery goals, metacognitive strategy use, and academic achievement. SAMPLE: A total of 8,773 secondary students drawn from three cohorts in Hong Kong participated in the study. RESULTS: We found that mastery goals and metacognitive strategy use exhibited reciprocal effects. Interestingly, and contrary to previous research, academic achievement was shown to predict mastery goal adoption and metacognitive strategy use but not the other way around. Results of the model were shown to be invariant across students of different genders, year levels, and school bands. Implications for goal theory research are discussed.

Personal best (PB) goal structure, individual PB goals, engagement, and achievement: A study of Chinese- and English-speaking background students in Australian schools.

BACKGROUND: Prior cross-cultural research with students in different national contexts (Australia and China) has shown consistency in the extent to which individual personal best (PB) goals are associated with engagement at school. AIMS: This study extends this work to a multicultural context, assessing perceived PB goal structure in school and individual PB goals among Chinese- and English-speaking background Australian high school students attending the same schools. SAMPLE: A sample of 450 students (N = 225 Chinese-speaking background Australian students; N = 225 matched English-speaking background Australian students) from 20 schools. METHOD: We conducted multigroup path modelling to examine the following process model: Perceived PB goal structure in school â†’ individual PB goals â†’ school engagement â†’ academic achievement. RESULTS: Findings showed that for both groups, perceived PB goal structure in school is associated with an individual's PB goals (and engagement), individual PB goals are associated with engagement, and engagement is associated with achievement. The indirect effects of perceived PB goal structure in school to achievement (via individual PB goals and engagement) and individual PB goals to achievement (via engagement) were also significant. Notably, there was no significant difference in parameters between Chinese- and English-speaking background students, suggesting generality of the effects of perceived PB goal structure in school and individual PB goals in the engagement and achievement process. CONCLUSION: Findings hold implications for educators teaching to culturally diverse classrooms and seeking to optimize students' academic growth within these contexts.

Testing the multidimensionality of the inventory of school motivation in a Dutch student sample.

A factor analytic and a Rasch measurement approach were applied to evaluate the multidimensional nature of the school motivation construct among more than 7,000 Dutch secondary school students. The Inventory of School Motivation (McInerney and Ali, 2006) was used, which intends to measure four motivation dimensions (mastery, performance, social, and extrinsic motivation), each comprising of two first-order factors. One unidimensional model and three multidimensional models (4-factor, 8-factor, higher order) were fit to the data. Results of both approaches showed that the multidimensional models validly represented the school motivation among Dutch secondary school pupils, whereas model fit of the unidimensional model was poor. The differences in model fit between the three multidimensional models were small, although a different model was favoured by the two approaches. The need for improvement of some of the items and the need to increase measurement precision of several first-order factors are discussed.

Growth trajectories of mathematics achievement: Longitudinal tracking of student academic progress.

BACKGROUND: A number of methods to investigate growth have been reported in the literature, including hierarchical linear modelling (HLM), latent growth modelling (LGM), and multidimensional scaling applied to longitudinal profile analysis (LPAMS). AIMS: This study aimed at modelling the mathematics growth of students over a span of 6 years from Grade 3 to Grade 9. SAMPLE: The sample comprised secondary longitudinal data collected in three waves from n = 866 Hong Kong students when they were in Grade 3, Grade 6, and Grade 9. METHOD: Mathematics achievement was measured thrice on a vertical scale linked with anchor items. Linear and nonlinear latent growth models were used to assess students' growth. Gender differences were also examined. RESULTS: A nonlinear latent growth curve with a decelerated rate had a good fit to the data. Initial achievement and growth rate were negatively correlated. No gender difference was found. CONCLUSION: Mathematics growth from Grade 6 to Grade 9 was slower than that from Grade 3 to Grade 6. Students with lower initial achievement improved at a faster rate than those who started at a higher level. Gender did not affect growth rate.

Academic motivation, self-concept, engagement, and performance in high school: key processes from a longitudinal perspective.

The study tested three theoretically/conceptually hypothesized longitudinal models of academic processes leading to academic performance. Based on a longitudinal sample of 1866 high-school students across two consecutive years of high school (Time 1 and Time 2), the model with the most superior heuristic value demonstrated: (a) academic motivation and self-concept positively predicted attitudes toward school; (b) attitudes toward school positively predicted class participation and homework completion and negatively predicted absenteeism; and (c) class participation and homework completion positively predicted test performance whilst absenteeism negatively predicted test performance. Taken together, these findings provide support for the relevance of the self-system model and, particularly, the importance of examining the dynamic relationships amongst engagement factors of the model. The study highlights implications for educational and psychological theory, measurement, and intervention.

Personal investment, culture and learning: insights into school achievement across Anglo, Aboriginal, Asian and Lebanese students in Australia.

Personal investment theory is a multifaceted theory of motivation, in which three key components: achievement goals (mastery, performance, social, and extrinsic), sense of self (sense of purpose, self-reliance, negative self-concept, positive self-concept), and facilitating conditions (parent support, teacher support, peer support), engage students in the process of learning. Four cultural groups (Anglo Australian, n = 852, Aboriginal Australian, n = 343, Lebanese Australian, n = 372, and Asian Australian, n = 283) of students were compared on these personal investment components and on several outcome measures (engagement, affect, achievement, participation). A series of MANOVAs, followed up by univariate tests, indicated ethnic differences and similarities in the endorsement of the personal investment theory components as well as in the outcome measures. Multiple regression analyses showed that each of the three sets of predictors (achievement goals, sense of self, facilitating conditions) explained a significant amount of the variance in almost all of the outcome measures. Across cultural groups, students' mastery goal and sense of purpose were consistently found to be significant predictors of their intention for further education, positive affect for schooling, and valuing of schooling.

Toward a hierarchical goal theory model of school motivation.

Instead of concentrating on mastery and performance goal orientations, recent research on school motivation has suggested a multidimensional structure of achievement goal orientations. Students in Australian high schools (N =774) responded to 35 survey items on 10 goal orientation constructs (effort, task, sense of purpose, praise, competition, power, token, social concern, social dependence, and affiliation) and 14 items on general mastery, general performance, general social, and global motivation constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis results supported a hierarchical, multidimensional school motivation construct. The hierarchical, multidimensional model has provided a strong theoretical structure for further school motivation research.