Children’s and Mothers’ Achievement Goal Orientations and Self-Efficacy: Dyadic Contributions to Students’ Well-Being

Versavia Curelaru, Daniela Muntele-Hendreș, Georgeta Diac and Diana-Sînziana Duca
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Versavia Curelaru: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, 700506 Iași, Romania
Daniela Muntele-Hendreș: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, 700506 Iași, Romania
Georgeta Diac: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, 700506 Iași, Romania
Diana-Sînziana Duca: Department of Education Sciences, „Ștefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 5, 1-24

Abstract: Starting from the basic idea that identifying predictive family factors for children’s well-being is among the levels of the psychology of sustainable human development, our study aimed to investigate the impact of mothers’ achievement goal orientations and parental self-efficacy on their children’s academic well-being, considering children’s own achievement goals as a mediator variable. The entire sample comprised 350 participants: 175 children (42.86% boys) and their respective mothers. Children were enrolled in the 4th grade ( n = 85; M age = 10.44, SD = 0.49), in the 8th grade ( n = 62; M age = 14.45, SD = 0.53), and in the 12th grade ( n = 28; M age = 18.39, SD = 0.62). The results indicated that mothers’ motivational orientations had a strong effect on their children’s corresponding motivational orientations. Mothers’ achievement goal orientations and parental self-efficacy had significant effects on children’s well-being, mediated by children’s goal orientations. Children’s well-being was positively predicted by mothers’ mastery and performance-approach goal orientations, with variations between age groups. The importance of the parental motivational orientations in the development of the children’s corresponding orientations and well-being suggests that changing academic adaptation might be possible by operating early interventions at the parents’ level. Further research is necessary to explore why performance-approach goals had a positive impact on well-being in this cultural context, as previous studies revealed that this type of goal orientation may be detrimental to well-being.

Keywords: achievement goal orientations; learning self-efficacy; parental self-efficacy; well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:5:p:1785-:d:325910

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