Preserving Autonomy and Interest Mediates Adolescents’ Academic Performance

Many students believe that academic performance is influenced by either contextual or personal factors. We asked whether knowledge of these beliefs and desires explained academic performance in early (14-15 years), middle (16-18 years), and late (19-21 years) adolescence.  Participants evaluated motivationally stimulating teaching practices, their own readiness to work hard, and their academic performance.  For each age group, beliefs about teaching practices and personal effort, in combination, predicted students’ academic performance. Yet, a mediation model explained individual differences better.  Students’ readiness to take control and sustain interest explained more of the variance in their academic performance than other facets of their intentions. This and detectable gender and age-group differences suggests that educators should move away from using general practices to stimulate motivation.