Taken together, the results of these studies support that one's actual social position and, even more, the social position one is about to reach are reliable predictors of performance-avoidance goals.

Abundant research has shown that the endorsement of performance-avoidance goals in academic contexts is associated with negative outcomes, including poor academic achievement. The present study tests students' social class as a moderator of the relationship between performance-avoidance goals and achievement. Two hundred thirty students (106 lower-class students and 124 upper-class students, Mage = 18.57, SD = 1.28) were asked to report the highest academic degree obtained by their mother and father and complete a performance-avoidance goal scale. Participants' initial academic level was measured. In addition, depending on the condition, they were led to believe they had great (vs. poor) chances to succeed at the university. They then solved Advanced Progressive Matrices measuring their achievement. As expected, performance-avoidance goals negatively predicted achievement only for lower-class students, and this moderation mainly appeared for high academic achievers. The manipulation of the success vs. failure expectancies did not moderate the effect. These results confirm that the adoption of performanceavoidance goals would be especially deleterious for lower-class students who succeed, supporting an interpretation in terms of the upward mobility process lower-class students achieve when succeeding in higher education.

Recent research has shown that lower social class students are more likely to endorse performance-avoidance goals (i.e., the fear of performing poorly) than higher-class students, particularly in situations of success (Jury, Smeding, Court & Darnon, 2015). The purpose of the present research is, first, to test the upward mobility process as a moderator of the link between social class and performance-avoidance goal endorsement. The second aim is to document the further impact of this process on academic performance. Two hundred and fifteen high school students (Mage = 17.40, SD = 0.69) participated in the experiment. Half of them were randomly assigned to a "mobility salience" condition where they completed a mobility perception scale; while the other half completed a neutral scale. Then, they answered performance-avoidance goal items and solved mathematics, physics and life and earth sciences exercises. Results indicated that the salience of the mobility process increased the effect of social class on both performance-avoidance goal endorsement and mathematic performance. In addition, performance-avoidance goals appeared to be a mediator of the interaction effect between social class and the salience of the mobility process on mathematics performance. No such findings were obtained for physics and life and earth sciences. Taken together, these results support the idea that the prospect of experiencing mobility may be one of the mechanisms behind the difficulties encountered by lower-class students in an academic context.