Normative and appearance performance-approach goal structures: Two-level factor structure and external linkages

Abstract

While personal performance-approach goals (PAp goals) have already been successfully bifurcated into normative and appearance PAp goals, the same distinction has not yet been applied to performance-approach goal structures (PAp goal structures). The present study therefore aimed to (a) test the factorial two-level structure of PAp goal structures to establish whether a distinction between normative and appearance components is empirically supported, and (b) explore relations to achievement and approach-oriented achievement goals (mastery-approach goals, normative and appearance personal PAp goals). This study relied on a sample of 1,004 secondary school students (53.38% females, 49 classes). Results from multilevel confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a model with two separate normative and appearance PAp goal structure factors on the individual student level, and one overall PAp goal structure factor on the classroom level fit the data best. On the individual student level, normative PAp goal structures positively predicted achievement, whereas appearance PAp goal structures negatively predicted achievement. Each PAp goal structure type showed the strongest relation to the matching personal PAp goal, but no relations to mastery-approach goals were found. On the classroom level, the high associations between the overall PAp goal structure and personal PAp goals raised concerns on their empirical distinctiveness.

Growth goal setting in high school: A large-scale study of perceived instructional support, personal background attributes, and engagement outcomes.

“…This suggests that although growth goal setting improved all students’ aspirations to complete year 12 (as seen in the significant main effect of growth goal setting on aspirations; Table 3 and Figure 2), it seemed to have an even greater bolstering effect for lower achieving students—apparently helping to reduce the aspirations gap. This finding is in line with previous research (Bardach et al, 2020) which showed that growth goals helped to attenuate the relationship between contextual problems (e.g., lack of support) and dropout intentions among university students. Thus, students who pursue growth goals may be relatively more protected from the potential negative impact stemming from a variety of sources (e.g., low prior achievement, contextual issues).…”

“…However, their measure of academic aspirations was part of a higher-order engagement factor, whereas our study modeled aspirations as a distinct factor to examine its unique association with growth goals. Similarly, Bardach et al (2020) found that growth goals were associated with lower dropout intentions, but their study was of university students, not high school students. In relation to homework, Martin (2012b) found a significant positive association with growth goals.…”

Achievement Goal Theory Review: An Application to School Psychology

“…In some newer enhancements to achievement goal theory, performance-approach goals have been further divided into two components: a normative component and an appearance component. Like the previous broad definition of performance-approach goals, the normative component refers to wanting to outperform others, whereas the appearance component refers to the focus on appearing talented to others (Bardach, Yanagida, et al, 2020; Hulleman et al, 2010).…”

Studying classroom climate effects in the context of multi-level structural equation modelling: an application-focused theoretical discussion and empirical demonstration

“…The data used in this study was collected as part of a larger research project on Austrian secondary school students' (social) motivation (Bardach and Lüftenegger 2018, see also Bardach, Graf, et al 2019;Bardach, Yanagida, et al 2020). The students attended Gymnasium schools, i.e.…”