Individual Differences in the Effects of Educational Transitions on Young Adolescent’s Perceptions of Competence and Motivational Orientation

We conducted two studies to examine the effects of changing educational environments on children’s academic self-concepts and motivation. In the first study, we examined the effects of transitions to a new grade or a new school on children’s perceptions of their scholastic competence, their motivational orientation, and their anxiety and general affect about school performance. Four groups of children were examined longitudinally as they made the transition to a new grade, some changing schools and some remaining in the same school: (a) fifth to sixth grade, same school; (b) fifth to sixth grade, new school; (c) sixth to seventh grade, same school; and (d) sixth to seventh grade, new school. We hypothesized that many students would reevaluate their scholastic competence after a transition, given new social comparison groups and the possible increased emphasis on grades and competence evaluation in higher grades. Resultant changes in perceived competence, in turn, should impact motivational orientation, anxiety, and affect. As we predicted, we found changes in perceived competence across the transition to be related to changes in motivation and to school-related affect and anxiety after the transition. In the second study, we examined whether the hypothesized grade-related changes in the educational environment were actually experienced by children. The large majority of middle school students in our sample did report an increasing emphasis on grades, competition, and performance evaluation with each new grade, fostering greater focus on their own competence. These children reported relatively more extrinsic motivational orientation and higher levels of scholastic anxiety and viewed academic success as more important than did their peers, who rated the environment to be less performance focused. Children’s affective reactions to their academic performance were also related to both their perceptions of competence and their motivational orientations. Overall, our findings suggest that changing emphases in the educational environment, of which children seem to be well aware, have complicated academic outcomes, depending on the individual resources children bring with them into the school environment.