Abstract:
Previous studies found that both academic self- concept and academic motivation were prominent determinants on students’ academic achievement. The causality of academic self-concepts on subsequent academic achievement in different stages was well established from longitudinal studies through structural equation modeling technique. However, there are very few studies exploring the causality connecting academic self-concept and academic motivation. In order to fill this knowledge gap, the present study via longitudinal design aims to examine the structural relationship of academic self-concepts and academic motivations at two waves as well as hypothesizes the existence of a reciprocal effect model of these constructs. Two hundred and twenty seven participants completed questionnaires with two measurements on Self-Description Questionnaire III (SDQ III) comprising verbal, academic and problem solving self-concepts and Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) embracing intrinsic motivation (IM) to know, IM toward accomplishment, IM experience stimulus; extrinsic motivation (EM) identified, EM introjected, EM external regulation and amotivation (AM) at two different time points. Reliability and validity analyses were conducted with each measurement at different stages and were found to contain good psychometric properties. Path analyses were conducted to investigate the association of prior academic self-concept, prior academic motivation, subsequent academic self-concept and subsequent academic motivation. Structural equation modeling was also conducted to validate the hypothesised reciprocal model connect the aforementioned constructs. It was found that the causality of academic self-concept and academic motivation was in a single effect direction, which only academic self-concept affected academic motivation. Moreover, the association between prior academic self-concept and subsequent academic motivation, the association between prior academic motivation and subsequent academic motivation, the association between prior academic self-concept and prior academic motivation, and the association between subsequent academic self-concept and subsequent academic motivation were found. Besides, the reciprocal causality model was firmly established. The theoretical implication of the present study is the confirmation of the reciprocal causality effect connecting academic self-concept and academic motivation.