The relationship between motives for science, perceived control, achievement anxiety, and self-regulation in junior high school students

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between motives for science, perceived control, achievement anxiety, and self-regulation in Japanese junior high school students using path analysis. One hundred and ninety-seven seventh-graders were given questionnaires on their perceptions of their motives for science, perceived control, achievement anxiety, and self-regulation. Motives for science learning were constructed with 4 subscales, i.e., mastery orientation, activity orientation, reality orientation, and profit orientation. An exploratory model composed of three levels; namely, students' personality traits (perceived control and achievement anxiety) --> motives for science --> self-regulation was examined. The result of path analysis showed that the effect of perceived control --> motives for science --> self-regulation was valid. It was revealed that students with high perceived control possibly understood the content of school subjects and used the most effective learning strategies through mastery orientation in motives for science.