Between- and within-domain relations of academic motivation among middle and high school students: Self-efficacy, task value, and achievement goals.

The author used confirmatory factor analysis to examine between-domain relations of self-efficacy, task-value, and achievement goal orientations among 424 Korean middle and high school students. AH motivational constructs demonstrated strong subject specificity in both age groups. Strengths of between-domain associations differed substantially by individual constructs. Performance-approach and perfor-mance-avoidance goals were highly correlated across domains, whereas task-value and mastery goals were more distinct across domains. Self-efficacy perceptions were moderately correlated across subjects. High school students academic motivation was more differentiated than that of middle school students. Within-domain interrelations among these motivation constructs were generally consistent with previous research. More important, consistent patterns of relations were observed in four different academic domains within each age group. Contemporary academic motivation research tends to emphasize the distinctiveness of students motivational orientation across different situations (Weiner, 1990). The emphasis on context spec-ificity is translated into motivation constructs being assessed in reference to particular academic tasks, activities, or domains of