Parental achievement goals' role in the undergraduate students' self-concept

Abstract

The goal of the study was to define the parental achievement goals construct: mastery, approach-performance and avoid-performance. To achieve this aim the Parental Achievement Goal Questionnaire was adapted into Spanish language. The participants were 486 parents, being 53.2% fathers and 46.8% mothers. The Item Response Theory was used to assess the items properties, and its match with the construct. Besides an Analysis of Variance was run to discover which factors explained differences inside the construct. Moreover, the predictive value of parental achievement goals on sudents' self-concept was analyzed. Findings suggest that parental gender and the degree chosen by sons and daughters should be considered to explain differences among parental achievement goals.