We propose that students experience "autonomy dissatisfaction" when the learning environment is indifferent to their psychological need for autonomy. We hypothesized that (a) students could distinguish this newly proposed need state from both autonomy satisfaction and autonomy frustration, (b) autonomy dissatisfaction would explain…

Math proficiency is a strong predictor of postsecondary attainment, yet cross-national comparative assessments show that U.S. students consistently score below many of their peers, especially those in East Asia. Similar math achievement disparities exist across ethnic/racial groups within the U.S., where Asian American students routinely…

We examined (a) the relative importance of perceived social support from parents, peers, and teachers; (b) the consequences associated with different types of perceived social support; and (c) the mediation by achievement goals in the relationship between perceived social support and academic outcomes. We analyzed the first 3 waves of the Korean…

The present study introduced "agentic engagement" as a newly proposed student-initiated pathway to greater achievement and greater motivational support. Study 1 developed the brief, construct-congruent, and psychometrically strong Agentic Engagement Scale. Study 2 provided evidence for the scale's construct and predictive validity, as…

This study provides the first longitudinally designed, classroom-based empirical test of self-determination theory's motivation mediation model. Measures of perceived autonomy support, motivation (autonomy need satisfaction), engagement, and achievement were collected from 500 (257 females, 243 males) 8th-grade students in Korea in a 3-wave…

The present study examined associations of levels of phonological awareness to word recognition in Korean and English in a 1-year longitudinal study of 91 children from Masan, Korea. With performances on tasks of speeded naming, vocabulary, and Korean Hangul in 2nd grade statistically controlled, only Korean syllable deletion predicted unique…