Academic Motivation and Self-Regulated Classroom Behaviors in Middle Childhood: Moderation by Parental Education

We examined how students’ intrinsic and extrinsic academic motivation and parental education uniquely and interactively related to teacher report of their self-regulated classroom behaviors (e.g., completion of tasks, keeping track of instructions). In a socioeconomically and racially/ethnically diverse sample of 317 students in third through fifth grade from the United States (34% Asian/Pacific Islander, 32% Hispanic/Latine, 21% White, 6% Black, 6% multiracial/other; 52% female), neither intrinsic motivation nor extrinsic academic motivation emerged as a significant predictor of children’s self-regulated classroom behaviors when controlling for parental education. However, we found a significant interactive effect between intrinsic motivation and parental education for three complementary measures of students’ self-regulated classroom behaviors (task orientation, working memory, flexible shifting). Simple slope analyses revealed that the positive association between intrinsic motivation and students’ self-regulated classroom behaviors was limited to children whose parents have lower levels of educational attainment (e.g., high school degree). This work has important practice and policy implications for increasing classroom practices that promote students’ academic intrinsic motivation, particularly for students whose parents have a high school degree or less. Simple interventions to improve teachers’ autonomy-supportive classroom practices and the content of verbal and written feedback to students could have cascading benefits for students’ intrinsic motivation and the self-regulated classroom behaviors that support learning.