BurbidgeFeb2024IBMSchoolTransition

Identity-based motivation theory predicts that how well students do in school and how certain they are of attaining their school-focused possible identities recursively interact with what they infer when school tasks and goals feel hard to think about or do. Recursivity implies bidirectionality, but studies to date focus on unidirectional paths. To address this gap, we devised a three-time-point, two-month study during a secondary school transition (Chinese students N=818, Mage=12, 44% female). We obtained prior grades (T0) and placement test scores (T1+) and asked whether secondary school placement fit student preference (T2+). Students filled out questionnaires at critical junctures: a month before the placement test (T1), the day test results were announced (T2), and after learning their school placement (T3). Structural equation model results show both recursive and unidirectional paths. The recursive paths are between school-focused possible identity certainty and belief in difficulty-as-importance (inferring value when schoolwork feels hard to think about or do) and school achievement; the unidirectional path is between identity certainty and belief in difficulty-as-impossibility (inferring self-irrelevance when schoolwork feels hard to think about or do). T1 school-focused possible identity certainty boosted T1+ placement test scores and T2 difficulty-as-importance (controlling for T0 grades, T1 difficulty-as-importance respectively); T1 difficulty-as-importance boosted T2 school-focused possible identity certainty (controlling for T1 school-focused possible identity certainty). T1+ test scores boosted T2 difficulty-as-importance; T2 difficulty-as-importance boosted T3 school-focused possible identity certainty. Lower T1 school-focused possible identity certainty carries over to higher T2 difficulty-as-impossibility (controlling for T1 difficulty-as-impossibility) and this process recurs from T2 to T3.