Academic Performance Motivation: Assessment and Relationship to Mental Health and Academic Achievement

Abstract

The purposes of this study were: 1) to modify the Exercise Motivation Scale (EMS: Fujita, Sato, & Moriguchi, 2010) which has its theoretical basis on self-determination theory (SDT) in order to adapt it to the academic field; 2) to confirm the factor structure of every subscale of Academic Performance Motivation Scale (APMS) (the revised version of EMS); 3) to evaluate the relationship between the students’ motivation styles for academic activities and their psychological well-being; and 4) to examine the relationship between motivation styles and academic achievement level, using data from self-report questionnaire results obtained from 162 college students in Japan. The 26 items in EMS were modified to accommodate to the academic activities, and all of them were adopted in APMS after confirming the content validity. Single-factor structure of all six subscales: Intrinsic Motivation, Integrated Regulation, Identified Regulation, Introjected Regulation, External Regulation, and A-Motivation, was confirmed by CFA. Mental health impairment, academic stress, and perceived social support were applied as indices of psycho-logical well-being. To assess the academic achievement level, the respondents were asked whether they had had to retake at least one examination and/or re-peat a year during the last twelve months. Consistent with SDT, the motivation styles with higher levels of autonomy and integration were related to high perceived social support. On the contrary, the motivation styles with lower levels of autonomy and integration were related to poor mental health, in-creased academic stress, and low perceived social support. It was not concluded whether academic achievement is related to motivation style.