Academic resilience in education: the role of achievement goal orientations

Introduction: In the past 2 decades, research findings established achievement goal theory as a powerful framework for conceptualizing difference in the quality of student’s engagement, persistence on task, and academic resilience. So the present study examined the relationship between achievement goal orientations and academic resilience. Method: Participants were 606 students (307 girls and 297 boys) selected from Shiraz high schools. They completed the Achievement Goals Questionnaire and Youth development Module Scale (RYDM). To analyze the data, the relationships between variables were examined, using Pearson product– moment correlations. Also simulanteous multiple regression was performed to investigate the prediction of academic resilience by achievement goal orientations. To examine the reliability and the validity of measures Cronbach alpha coefficient and factor analysis method were applied, respectively. Results: Simultaneous multiple regression of achievement goal orientations on academic resilience showed that “mastery-approach” was a significant positive predictor of the “home care/high” and “peer care” subscales. Also, “performance-approach” was a significant, positive predictor of “home care/ high”, and “school/community meaningful” was predicted by “performanceavoidance” positively. Conclusion: According to the findings, it seems that achievement goal orientation has a critical role in students’ academic achievement. Implications of the results are discussed in more details.