Motivation for Educational Attainment in Grade 9 Predicts High School Completion

Abstract

The Motivation for Educational Attainment (MEA) questionnaire, developed to assess facets related to early adolescents’ motivation to complete high school, has a bifactor structure with a large general factor and three smaller orthogonal specific factors (teacher expectations, peer aspirations, value of education). This prospective validity study investigated the utility of each factor in predicting high school dropout or completion of a general education development (GED) certificate versus completion of a high school degree. Participants were 474 (55.1% male) ethnically diverse students who were originally recruited into a larger longitudinal study in Grade 1 on the basis of academic risk. Fourteen years later, 373 had obtained a high school diploma, 15 had obtained a GED, and 86 had dropped out of high school. During their first year of Grade 9, participants were administered the MEA. Using multinomial logistic regression with high school graduation as the reference outcome and controlling for Grade 9 letter grades, reading and math test scores, gender, and ethnic/racial group status, scores on the latent general factor and the latent peer aspirations factor predicted high school dropout versus high school graduation status. Neither the general factor nor any of the three specific factors predicted GED completion versus high school graduation. Ethnicity, but not gender, moderated the associations between scores on the general factor and high school graduation versus dropout.

Evaluating the factor structure and measurement invariance of the Academic Competence Evaluation Scales–Short Form.

“…These attitudes and behaviors are collectively referred to as academic enablers (Anthony, Ogg, et al, 2021; DiPerna & Elliott, 2002) because they enable students to learn in the classroom. Academic enablers promote academic skills such as reading, math, writing, and critical thinking (e.g., DiPerna et al, 2002, 2005), contribute to school belonging (Korpershoek et al, 2020), and are predictive of student achievement (Farrington et al, 2012) and high school completion (West et al, 2019). Moreover, academic enablers are malleable, impacted by educational environments, and can be strengthened through instruction and intervention (e.g., Christenson & Anderson, 2002; Valiente et al, 2020), making them important targets for assessment and intervention through multitiered models of service delivery.…”