The Relationship between Academic Amotivation and Academic Achievement: A Study on Middle School Students

Abstract

This study aimed to determine whether academic amotivation predicts academic achievement in middle-school students. In addition, it was examined whether the students' academic amotivation levels differed by their gender. Study sample consisted of 342 eighth-grade students from middle-schools in Kahramanmaras city in Turkey. Data were collected from Academic Amotivation Inventory. A simple-linear regression analysis was utilized to examine to what extent academic amotivation accounted for variance in academic achievement. The t-test analysis was used to determine whether amotivation types would differ by gender. Regression analysis results showed that academic amotivation was a significant negative predictor of academic achievement. Results also indicated that significant differences were found between the levels of academic amotivation of students by their gender. Boys were found to be more academically amotivated towards school-related activities and tasks than girls. The reason for the gender difference was that the level of amotivation due to effort beliefs, values placed on the tasks, and characteristics of the tasks, for boys were found significantly to be higher than for girls.