Mastery Goal and Performance Goal Orientation in the Transition to Lower Secondary Education: Longitudinal Findings on the Importance of Parental Stress and Educational Behavior

Abstract

Parental stress influences the support strategies they implement to support their children’s learning. These hypotheses were examined using data from the longitudinal study “Wirkungen der Selektion”. The subjects in the experimental group, consisting of 1096 parents and their children in lower secondary education grades 6 and 7, as well as the control group including 778 parents and their children, answered a questionnaire. Structural equation modelling and multi-group analyses showed that in both groups stressed parents showed higher performance oriented pressure, leading educators to seek to increase the student’s performance. The results indicate how parents can counteract decreasing mastery and performance goal orientation.