Self-determined motivation, achievement goals and anxiety of economic and business students in Indonesia

Abstract

Anxiety is a natural thing and can happen to everyone; it is a reaction to the inability to overcome problems or lack of security. However, excessive anxiety can impede one's function in life. Anxiety experienced by students can also hinder them in performing better. Setting goals that are difficult to achieve can cause students to experience anxiety or fear of not being able to achieve them. This study aims to examine the relationship model between several dispositional factors that can affect students' anxiety. The author investigated the relation between self-determined motivation, achievement goals, and anxiety in 365 business students. Specifically, the author investigated the relation between self-determined motivation (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation), mastery goal orientation, performance-goal orientation and students' anxiety. Results of Pearson's correlation showed that students' anxiety was positively associated with performance-goal orientation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation, but students' anxiety was not associated either with intrinsic motivation or mastery-goal orientation. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation correlated with each other, but correlation between mastery and performance-goal orientation was not significant. Implementing structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the relationship models. The first model used three dimensions of motivation as mediating variables of influence between achievement goals and students' anxiety. The second model used two dimension of achievement orientation as mediating variables of influence between motivation and students' anxiety. It was found that the proposed models have a good fit. Students' anxiety was influenced primarily by extrinsic motivation, amotivation, and performance-goal orientation. Further, discussions on the results of this study are discussed in detail in this article.