Feeling Lonely and Left Out Mediates the Effects of Social Achievement Goals on Classroom Engagement

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Peers and Family as Context of Development

Abstract

Social achievement goals (Focus on Developing vs. demonstrating social competence) have implications for individuals' academic adjustment but little is known about the mediation of such effects. In one concurrent (N= 222) and one longitudinal study (N=373) with middle school students, the relations among social achievement goals, social stress and sense of isolation, and academic engagement (engagement, disruptive behavior, help seeking tendencies) were investigated. Social development goals predicted a desirable pattern of academic engagement and while the opposite pattern held true for social demonstration-avoid goals. Some of these effects were mediated through friend-related stress and sense of social isolation in class. Demonstration-approach goals related to unhealthy pattern of academic engagement and sense of social isolation mediated some of these effects.

Authors

• Sungok Serena Shim, Ball State University

• YoonJung Cho, Sungshin Women's University