engleski

Academic motivation in high school students: The role of psychological needs and identity process

Academic motivation is in recent research often explored within the context of two prominent psychological theories: self- determination theory and psychosocial stage theory. The goal of this study was to explore the contribution of psychological needs and identity process in the explanation of student academic motivation for attending college. The sample of 848 final year high school students (56% females ; mean age 18.15 years) from different schools in Croatia participated in the study. Majority of them (86%) intend to apply for college. The measures included intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Academic Motivation Scale), needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (Basic Psychological Needs Scale), and dimensions of exploration and commitment (Ego Identity Process Questionnaire). According to the results, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are moderately correlated (r=.50). To check the possible differences in their contributors, two hierarchical regression analysis were conducted. After controlling for gender and previous academic achievement, significant predictors of intrinsic motivation were psychological needs for relatedness and competence, identity exploration and identity commitment, while significant predictors of extrinsic motivation were psychological need for relatedness, identity exploration, and identity commitment. It seems that the role of identity process is important for both type of motivation. On the other side, both psychological needs for relatedness and competence are important for intrinsic motivation, while extrinsic motivation is predicted only by psychological need for relatedness. The fulfillment of the basic psychological needs, together with the identity process are important factors in academic motivation of late adolescence.

academic motivation ; psychological needs ; identity process ; high school students

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