First-year university students have multiple motives for studying and these motives may interact. Yet, past research has primarily focused on a variable-centered, dimensional approach missing out on the possibility to study the joint effect of multiple motives that students may have. Examining the interplay between motives is key to (a) better explain student differences in study success and wellbeing, and (b) to understand different effects that interventions can have in terms of wellbeing and study success. We therefore applied a student-centered, multidimensional approach in which we explored motivational profiles of first-year university students by combining three dimensions of motives for studying (self-transcendent, self-oriented, and extrinsic) which have been shown to be differently related to academic functioning. Using cluster analysis in two independent, consecutive university student cohorts (n = 763 and n = 815), we identified four meaningful profiles and coined them motivational mindsets. We validated the four mindset profiles not only within each student sample but also found almost identical profiles between the student samples. The motivational mindset profiles were labeled: high-impact mindset, low-impact mindset, social-impact mindset, and self-impact mindset. In addition to validating the paradigm, we developed a mindset classification tool to further use these mindsets in practice and in future research.

Research on the joint effect of multiple motives for studying was recently given a push in a new direction with the introduction of the motivational mindset model (MMM). This model contributes to a better understanding of study success and student wellbeing in higher education. The aim of the present study is to validate the newly developed model and the associated mindset classification tool (MCT). To this end, 662 first-year university students were classified in one of the four types of motivational mindset using the classification tool and three exploratory validation procedures were conducted through sense of purpose, study engagement, and students’ background characteristics in terms of gender and ethnicity. Both purpose and study engagement are central dimensions of student wellbeing and predictors of study success. The results show that (1) sense of purpose and study engagement differ across the four types of mindset, (2) students in the low-impact mindset show the least optimal pattern of study engagement and sense of purpose, (3) sense of purpose and study engagement are positively related and this relationship is consistent across mindsets, and (4) overall differences in purpose and study engagement between gender and ethnic subgroups stem from one specific type of motivational mindset. The results provide support for the validity of the MMM and the usefulness of the MCT. The implications of the findings are discussed as well as promising avenues for future research.

First-year university students have multiple motives for studying and these motives may interact. Yet, past research has primarily focused on a variable-centered, dimensional approach missing out on the possibility to study the joint effect of multiple motives that students may have. Examining the interplay between motives is key to (a) better explain student differences in study success and wellbeing, and (b) to understand different effects that interventions can have in terms of wellbeing and study success. We therefore applied a student-centered, multidimensional approach in which we explored motivational profiles of first-year university students by combining three dimensions of motives for studying (self-transcendent, self-oriented, and extrinsic) which have been shown to be differently related to academic functioning. Using cluster analysis in two independent, consecutive university student cohorts (n = 763 and n = 815), we identified four meaningful profiles and coined them motivational mindsets. We validated the four mindset profiles not only within each student sample but also found almost identical profiles between the student samples. The motivational mindset profiles were labelled: High-impact mindset, Low-impact mindset, Social-impact mindset, and Self-impact mindset. In addition to validating the paradigm, we developed a mindset classification tool to further use these mindsets in practice and in future research.

The motivational mindset model (MMM) is a new student-centered, multidimensional perspective on motivation in higher education and aims to better explain differences in wellbeing, study success and intervention effectiveness. The four types of mindsets within the model (high-impact, low-impact, social-impact, and self-impact) have proven to differ in two important dimensions of wellbeing and predictors of study success, namely a sense of purpose in life and study engagement. The present study expands the MMM by (1) examining the relationship between the mindsets and academic performance, (2) observing the mindset churn in the first year, and (3) exploring the role of the mindsets in the effectiveness of an online, narrative goal-setting intervention. To this end, the mindset of 748 first-year university students was measured at the beginning and the end of the first academic year. Results show that the mindset churn was considerable: on average 58% of the students had changed their mindset at follow-up. Results further show that students with a low-impact mindset at follow-up were more likely to drop out of the first year compared to the other three mindsets. Finally, a group of low-impact mindset students show an increased sense of purpose after participating in the goal-setting intervention and moved to a social-impact mindset during the year. This pattern provides preliminary support that the goal-setting intervention is a purpose-fostering intervention for students entering higher education with a low-impact mindset. A potential working mechanism of the goal-setting intervention is discussed as well as implications and directions for future research.

The working mechanism of an effective online lifegoal-setting intervention was recently proposed by means of the motivational mindset model (MMM). The MMM contains four types of mindset profiles (high-impact, low-impact, social-impact, and self-impact) based on multiple, co-occurring motives that students hold for studying. The present paper aims to qualitatively investigate the mechanism and explores whether the goal-setting intervention fosters a favorable change in mindset. To this end, a deductive content analysis was used to examine the life goal motives in the written goal-setting essays of 48 first-year university students (33% female; 8.3% ethnic minority; Mage = 19.5, age range 17–30 years). Life goal motives were coded according to four dimensions along two distinctions (self-oriented versus self-transcendent, and intrinsic versus extrinsic) and analyses were focused on comparisons between changed and stable mindsets. Results show that students who changed from a low-impact mindset to a social-impact mindset expressed intrinsic self-oriented and intrinsic self-transcendent motives to a similar extent as stable social-impact mindset students. This pattern indicates that the positive change in mindset already occurred during the reflection assignment and substantiates the proposed mechanism of the goal-setting intervention. The implications of the findings are discussed as well as directions for future research.