The Hidden Price of Achievement: Linking Cost Perceptions to Mindset, Belonging, and Performance

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Framing Effort, Building Efficacy: Motivational Insights Across Contexts

Abstract

This study advances Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020) by identifying how students’ perceptions of different cost dimensions influence achievement through key motivational beliefs. Undergraduate physics students (N=1221) completed self-report surveys including four cost dimensions—task effort, outside effort, loss of valued alternatives, and emotional cost. Serial mediation model results showed that all cost types indirectly predicted lower course grades through greater fixed mindsets, lower sense of belonging, and lower engagement. These findings clarify how the cost dimensions function as a psychological trigger that undermines academic performance through shared motivational pathways. Implications highlight targeting student beliefs and belonging in cost-based interventions may reduce the psychological burden of cost and improve academic outcomes.

Authors

• Rylan Deer, The Ohio State University

• Shirley L. Yu, The Ohio State University

• Kimiko Ching, The Ohio State University

• Andrew Holmes Perry, The Ohio State University

• Wonjoon Cha, The Ohio State University