University Students’ Self-Efficacy for Motivational Regulation, Use of Motivational Regulation Strategies, and Satisfaction With Academic Studies: Exploring Between-Person and Within-Person Associations

Abstract

Although research on motivational regulation, as an important subprocess of self-regulated learning, has increased considerably in the past two decades, previous findings stem mainly from cross-sectional data and between-person analyses.The aimof this researchwas to explore the longitudinal associations between self-efficacy formotivational regulation, use ofmotivational regulationstrategies, and satisfactionwith academic studies in university students (N= 574).We conducted a four-wave study at one-semester intervals and used random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) to distinguish between-person associations (regarding stable interindividual differences) fromwithin-person associations (regarding processes of intraindividual change) of the variables. At the between-person level, higher self-efficacy for motivational regulation was associated with more frequent use of motivational regulation strategies. Additionally, both motivational regulation constructs were positively associated with satisfaction with study content and satisfaction with coping with study-related stress. At the within-person level, we found significant negative cross-lagged effects of self-efficacy for motivational regulation on strategy use, but not vice versa. Furthermore, we found significant positive cross-lagged effects of self-efficacy for motivational regulation on both satisfaction dimensions, but not vice versa. With regard to the cross-lagged effects between strategy use and both satisfaction dimensions, the respective reciprocal associations were not statistically significant. These findings provide initial evidence for the relevance of changes in self-efficacy for motivational regulation in predicting changes in the frequency of motivational regulation strategy use and in satisfaction with academic studies. Furthermore, they accentuate the importance of disentangling between-person from within-person associations in research on self-regulated learning.