Achievement motivation configurations and core-stage reading performance among United States adolescents: a diagnostic classification analysis
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction Achievement motivation is often examined through separate scale scores, although students’ goals, attitudes, motives, competence beliefs, and responses to failure may co-occur in distinct configurations. This study examined whether PISA 2018 achievement-motivation items could be represented using a theory-informed diagnostic classification framework and whether the resulting motivational attributes and configurations differed by core-stage reading performance. Methods This cross-sectional secondary analysis used data from 4,426 United States participants in PISA 2018. Seventeen ordinal questionnaire items represented five attributes: learning goals, attitudes toward competition, motivation to master tasks, general self-efficacy, and fear of failure. A theory-informed item-level Q-matrix was evaluated using a sequential G-DINA model in a development sample and assessed in an independent validation sample. Survey-weighted posterior probabilities were used to estimate attribute and configuration prevalence. Results Forty-eight of 54 initial category-transition specifications were retained, with six transition-level modifications across three items. Approximate fit was satisfactory in both the development (SRMSR = 0.031) and validation (SRMSR = 0.034) samples. Learning goals showed the highest survey-weighted prevalence (0.77), followed by general self-efficacy (0.72), motivation to master tasks (0.66), attitudes toward competition (0.56), and fear of failure (0.52). The most prevalent configuration combined learning goals, motivation to master tasks, and self-efficacy without competition or fear of failure (14.4%). Learning-, effort-, and efficacy-related configurations were more common among students with higher core-stage reading performance, whereas broadly low endorsement and isolated fear of failure were more common among students with low performance. Discussion Fear of failure occurred within different motivational patterns across performance groups, revealing information not evident from marginal prevalence alone. These findings illustrate the value of examining achievement motivation as configurations of distinct but interrelated attributes at the item and response-category levels.
Source: Frontiers in Psychology
Authors: Jiyung Hwang, Dongil Kim
Institutions: University of Toledo, Seoul National University
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7223407944