Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.

Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.

Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7855-448X

AccessType

Open Access Dissertation

Document Type

dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Program

School Psychology

Year Degree Awarded

2019

Month Degree Awarded

May

First Advisor

Sarah Fefer, PhD

Second Advisor

Amanda Marcotte, PhD

Third Advisor

Christopher Martell, PhD

Subject Categories

Educational Psychology | School Psychology

Abstract

Academic motivation is a key factor in students’ academic and behavioral success in school. Previous research has demonstrated strong relationships between disciplinary events and academic performance, as well as between academic performance and academic motivation. However, there is limited understanding of the relationship between academic motivation and disciplinary events, or how academic motivation, academic performance, and disciplinary events are related. The purpose of this study was to examine student self-ratings of their academic motivation in grades 9-12 in a public high school, and to investigate the associations and interactive relationships between these three variables. Participants (N=78) completed the Academic Resilience Scale School (Cassidy, 2016) and school records were accessed for data on disciplinary events and academic performance. Using linear regression, the relationships between disciplinary events and academic performance, academic motivation and academic performance, and disciplinary events and academic motivation were analyzed. It was shown that disciplinary events were significantly associated with lower ratings of academic motivation and lower academic performance. Higher academic motivation was significantly associated with higher academic performance. Additionally, academic motivation was found to be a significant partial mediator on the relationship between disciplinary events and academic performance. Students who had disciplinary events, but reported high academic motivation, were found to have higher academic performance than students who reported lower academic motivation. Limitations of the study, implications for the field, and future directions will also be discussed.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/14058406

Download

Share

COinS