Mathematics emotion profiles: stability and change during Grades 7 and 8

Abstract

Academic emotions are not mutually exclusive, and students can experience various emotions simultaneously. We aimed at identifying distinct emotion profiles in mathematics in the lowest-ability tier in lower secondary school. Also, we investigated the patterns of change to students’ mathematics emotion profiles in Grades 7 and 8, and whether an intervention setting impacted these patterns of change compared to the control setting. Latent profile analysis (LPA) and random intercept latent transition analysis (RI-LTA) were applied to assess the mathematics emotion profiles and the probability of transitioning between the profiles of 348 students. Results revealed three emotion profiles: a mixed emotion profile, a rather positive emotion profile, and a predominantly positive emotion profile with a high level of stability across Grades 7 and 8. The three mathematics emotion profiles can be predicted by gender and mathematics achievement. Finally, RI-LTA revealed that the intervention had different effects on the mathematics emotion profiles.