A Short-Term Longitudinal Perspective on Achievement Goal Profiles

• In Event: Person-Centered Methodologies and Motivation Research: What Does It Add and Where Is It Going?

Abstract

Researchers have used person-centered analyses to examine groups of individuals endorsing different combinations of achievement goals (i.e., goal profiles), identifying which goal profiles commonly appear among students and how such profiles relate to different outcomes. A question yet to be fully discussed is how students’ goal profiles change over time, since few longitudinal studies exist regarding multiple goals (see Tuominen-Soini, Salmela-Aro, & Niemivirta, 2011, 2012). The present study analyzes the stability of goal profiles at three points over a single semester. It also examines the longitudinal relation of goal profiles to behavioral engagement and achievement.

College anatomy students (n = 136) reported their achievement goals (i.e., mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) at beginning (Time 1), middle (Time 2), and end (Time 3) of a semester. Students also reported their behavioral engagement in the anatomy course at Time 2 and Time 3. Seventeen in-class quiz and five laboratory exam scores were collected as achievement indicators. After confirming measurement invariance of achievement goals across the semester through longitudinal confirmatory factor analyses, we identified goal profiles using an I-states as Objects Analysis approach (Bergman & El-Khouri, 1999) with latent profile analysis. A four-profile solution best fit the data across three time points: mastery high, performance low, high all goals, and mastery relatively low.
Overall, 50.8% of students remained in the same profile from Time 1 to Time 2, and 60.7% from Time 2 to Time 3. The mastery high profile was least stable across time (30.0% for both transitions), while the mastery relatively low profile was substantially stable at both transitions (58.5% and 69.2% respectively). Configural frequency analyses (CFA; von Eye, 1990) identified students remaining in the same profile as the only significant types, or profile shift patterns that were more frequently observed than expected by chance. Results from linear mixed models (Fitzmaurice, Laird, & Ware, 2004) revealed that the mastery high and high all goals students displayed more adaptive patterns than the mastery relatively low students in terms of initial levels and growth in behavioral engagement and achievement. Although high all goals students displayed higher initial achievement, mastery high students demonstrated equally high in-class quiz achievement by the end of the semester; the reverse was true for laboratory exam achievement.

This study extends the multiple goal literature by combining person- and variable-centered approaches to examine the stability and adaptiveness of goal profiles. For theory, findings suggest that the mastery high goal profile is less stable than others and mastery high and high all goal profiles are differentially related to achievement (e.g., in-class quizzes versus exams) and longitudinal change. Practically, findings reinforce the view that mastery-approach goals should be encouraged in classrooms but also indicate that some students may need support to maintain high mastery goals over time, as this profile was the least stable. Likewise, interventions may be needed to support students endorsing relatively low mastery goals as this profile was the most stable and showed less adaptive engagement and achievement over time.

Authors

• You-kyung Lee, Michigan State University

• Stephanie V. Wormington, Michigan State University

• Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia, Michigan State University

• Cary J. Roseth, Michigan State University