6533b851fe1ef96bd12a95d7

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Education-related goal appraisals and self-esteem during the transition to secondary education: A longitudinal study

subject

description

This study investigated whether adolescents’ appraisals of their education-related goals change during the transition from comprehensive school to postcomprehensive secondary education (academic vs. vocational track) and how such appraisals contribute to their self-esteem. Six hundred and seven 16-year-old adolescents were surveyed three times: (1) at the beginning, (2) at the end of the final spring term of comprehensive school, and (3) one year after the transition to postcomprehensive secondary education. They were asked to appraise their education-related goal in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic reasons for goal striving, goal progress, effort, and stress. The results showed that, when adolescents ended up in a mode of education that was congruent with their skills, their intrinsic reasons for goal strivings and goal progress increased. Moreover, progress towards goal attainment contributed to self-esteem, and self-esteem also predicted goal progress. Furthermore, the higher the self-esteem in comprehensive school, the lower the level of extrinsic reasons for goal striving after the transition.