Socio-economic status, mastery-approach goals and learning-related outcomes: Mediation and moderation

Socio-economic status is one of the most important factors shaping students' motivation and achievement but has seldom been explored in relation to achievement goals.

This study aimed to investigate whether mastery-approach goals explain the link between SES and key learning-related outcomes (mediation) and whether SES modifies the relationship between mastery-approach goals and these outcomes (moderation).

Data came from 595,444 students nested in 21,322 schools across 77 countries.

Data were analysed using multilevel-moderated mediation analyses.

We found significant mediation and moderation. In terms of mediation, mastery-approach goals mediated the association between family SES and learning-related outcomes. However, a different pattern emerged for school SES, as students in higher SES schools had lower mastery-approach goals. In terms of moderation, we found that family SES strengthened the association between mastery-approach goals and learning-related outcomes. However, the association between mastery-approach goals and learning-related outcomes was weaker in higher SES schools.

Theoretical and practical implications for the achievement goal approach to achievement motivation are discussed.