Specifying causal relations between students' goals and academic self-concept : an integrated structural model of student motivation

Two major streams of theorizing have characterised the literature regarding student motivation" the goal orientations literature and the self-concept literature. With one exception, however, causal models relating both goals and self-concept to important outcomes from motivated behaviour, such as academic achievement, have not been evident in the literature. This three year longitudinal panel study, in contrast, specifies causal relations among students' achievement goals, academic self-concept and academic achievement. Participants were Australian High School students from Grades 7, 8 and 9 in the first year of the study. The focal structural equation model operationalising relationships between goals, self-concept and achievement supports the hypothesis that goals, self-concept and achievement are reciprocally related. Thus, goals, self-concept and achievement appear to influence each other over time. For this reason, the paper suggests that combining measures of goals, self-concept and achievement in single studies has important theoretical, methodological and practical implications for student motivation and its relationship to fundamental outcomes.