Behavioral aspects and learning motivation: a study of middle school adolescents.
Queila Pereira Antunes, Graziela Nunes Alfenas Fernandes, Stela Maris Aguiar Lemos
PMID 35416890WHAT IT FOUND
Among 124 middle schoolers, conduct, peer, and total behavior scores were linked to motivation, but age, sex, and grade did not show significant differences.
Key findings
01Most students had normal Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire results, including 95.2% for prosocial behavior.
02Conduct problems were significantly associated with the learning goal (p=0.013), peer relationship problems with the performance-avoidance goal (p=0.002), and total classification with the learning goal (p=0.025) and with the performance-avoidance goal (p=0.012).
03No statistically significant results were found for the association of prosocial behavior or total score with sex, age, or grade.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample was nonprobabilistic and came from a private institution, so it may not represent other middle school students. Students with cognitive, neurological, or psychiatric impairments were excluded, so the findings do not cover adolescents with those conditions. The study is cross-sectional and used questionnaires, so it cannot show that behavior causes motivation or that changing motivation changes behavior. The authors state that the sample was homogeneous in socioeconomic data and cultural aspects.
Declared interests
Funding was from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES), Código de Financiamento 001. No other conflicts are reported in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this study shows a way to improve motivation or reduce behavior problems. It is cross-sectional and only reports associations, not cause or effect.