Striving to learn and feeling well? The effects of students’ achievement goal-orientation on their psychological and physical well-being over one school year

Students’ motivation and well-being are not only highly relevant for success at school, they also facilitate students’ inherent growth, optimal functioning, and health. However, both motivation and well-being tend to decline over the school year, presenting a risk for students’ academic achievement and health. Although both constructs are closely related, longitudinal evidence of their relationship is still lacking. Following achievement goal theory and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, it is the goal of the current study to explore how achievement goal-orientation is related to students’ physical and psychological well-being. A total of 733 seventh- and eighth-grade students (M_Age = 14.73, SD = 0.69; 52% girls) participated in the study, completing the questionnaire once at the beginning and again at the end of the school year. By applying path analysis in Mplus, this study shows that students who tend to exhibit an avoidance goal orientation at the beginning of the school year tend to report lower levels of psychological and physical well-being at the end of the school year. Students who exhibit appearance performance approach goals reported higher levels of physical well-being at the end of the school year. Results also indicate that boys tend to report higher physical and psychological well-being at both time points.