Abstract:

This paper aimed to examine the relationships between middle students' school adjustments (absenteeism, truancy, and educational aspirations), their autonomy-supportive climate perception, motivational beliefs system, and reported engagement in learning.

Grounded in self-determination theory, we conducted a path analysis to:
(a) examine how autonomy-supportive climate in the classroom contributes to adolescents' beliefs system (perceptions of competencies and academy self-concept) and
(b) investigate associations between motivational beliefs and both emotional/behavioral engagement and school adjustments.

The authors assessed the model's fit in a sample of 129 middle school students' data. The model explained 28% of the variance in school adjustments. Structural equation modeling revealed that autonomy support directly affected perceived academic competencies and indirectly positively affected learning engagement mediated through motivational beliefs. As such, students who perceived more outstanding teacher autonomy support reported higher perceptions of their competencies and self-concept. In this way, teachers’ behavior perceptions and student motivation are fundamental in students' school adjustments. Implications for theories of autonomy contexts are discussed, as are implications for the design of autonomy environments.

Keywords:

Self-determination theory, autonomous motivation, engagement in learning, deep processing, adjustment at school