Situating Psychosocial and Motivational Factors in Learning Contexts

Abstract

Student learning in achievement contexts is an important inquiry that has been researched extensively, utilizing different theoretical orientations. The present investigation, contributing to the study of motivation, entails an amalgamation of four major constructs: school belonging, academic engagement, future time perspective, and personal self-efficacy. Based on existing empirical evidence, and using causal modeling procedures, we hypothesized a number of structural relations (e.g., the impact of future time perspective on course-specific self-efficacy) with school belonging serving as an antecedent of motivational and noncognitive outcomes. Upper secondary school students (N = 304) provided self-reports of their future time perspectives, self-efficacy beliefs, and engagement. Statistical analyses yielded some notable findings, such as the direct impact of school belonging on academic achievement, and the direct positive effects of future time perspective and vigor, a component of academic engagement, on global-specific self-efficacy.