PISA reading achievement, literacy motivation, and school burnout predicting Adolescents' educational track and educational attainment

Within-Year Stability and Changes in Adolescents’ Cross-Domain Motivational Profiles: Predictions on Academic Achievement and Educational Choices

“…Success may come with detrimental byproducts, including anxiety and school burnout, if a student is prone to draining tendencies such as perfectionism (e.g., Kuusi et al, 2024) or a strong performance orientation (e.g., Tuominen-Soini et al, 2012). Consistently, the choice of general track is predicted by experiences of exhaustion -a symptom of school burnout (Vasalampi et al, 2023; see also Salmela-Aro et al, 2008).…”

“…Perceived cost has been directly related to drop-out and avoidance intentions (Jiang et al, 2018;Perez et al, 2014) and inversely to achievement (Guo et al, 2016;Jiang et al, 2018;Wille et al, 2020). With respect to the motivational antecedents of upper secondary track selection, self-concepts in reading comprehension (Torppa et al, 2023) and literacy (Vasalampi et al, 2023) have predicted studies in general rather than vocational track, and so have domain-general academic selfconcept and sense of purpose, which is comparable to the overall utility value of school for the future (Jónsdóttir & Blöndal, 2023). On the other hand, self-concepts in reading fluency and math (Torppa et al, 2023) along with the value of literacy (Vasalampi et al, 2023) have been unrelated to the track choice.…”

“…Unattached provides an interesting example of the diversity that can be assumed in students unified by similar motivation. Some of these students are possibly generally alienated from school and would prefer not to proceed to upper secondary education: cynicism toward school has been found more prevalent among adolescents opting for the vocational track (Salmela-Aro et al, 2008;Vasalampi et al, 2023), and these attitudes may be particularly pronounced in the least motivated students. Another subgroup of the Unattached may, instead of being comprehensively amotivated, experience high motivation for non-academic subjects: Viljaranta and colleagues (2009) found that, alongside students with overall low motivation, also those predominantly motivated for practical subjects were likely to end up in the vocational track.…”

“…Typically, academic and general tracks prepare students for further education at tertiary level, while vocational tracks qualify for a certain occupation and direct entrance to the labor market. The track choice -either freely made or based on teacher recommendation -is tightly bound to student background: parental education and other indicators of socioeconomic status (SES; e.g., Burger, 2021;Eiríksdóttir et al, 2022;Hakkarainen et al, 2016;Vasalampi et al, 2023) along with school achievement (e.g., Burger, 2021;T. Keller, 2023;Torppa et al, 2023;Viljaranta et al, 2009) positively predict studies in general rather than vocational tracks.…”

“…The interplay of contextual and motivational dynamics that guide educational pathways have been a focal area of expectancy-value research since its seminal modern conceptualizations (see Wigfield & Cambria, 2010). While much research has explored the role of motivation for academic achievement (e.g., Guo et al, 2016;Huang, 2011;Hübner et al, 2023;Jiang et al, 2018;Wille et al, 2020), educational expectations and aspirations (e.g., Lazarides et al, 2016;Olive et al, 2022;Oppermann et al, 2021;Vinni-Laakso et al, 2022;Widlund et al, 2020), and post-secondary educational and occupational choices (e.g., Gaspard et al, 2019Gaspard et al, , 2020Musu-Gillette et al, 2015;Umarji et al, 2018;Wille et al, 2020), less is known about its relevance for the choice of upper secondary school track (see, however, Jónsdóttir & Blöndal, 2023;Lazarides et al, 2016;Sinclair et al, 2019;Torppa et al, 2023;Vasalampi et al, 2023;Viljaranta et al, 2009).…”