University Students’ Motivational Profiles, their Stability, and Connections with Perfectionism and Well-being: Latent Transition Approach

BackgroundStudents display diverse patterns of expectations for success, values, and perceived costs, and these motivational differences have significant implications for academic outcomes. By examining the stability, and antecedents and consequences of these patterns, we can better understand the qualitative differences in how students approach and engage in their studies.AimsUsing a person-oriented approach, we examined university students’ expectancy-value-cost profiles and their stability over time, the role of perfectionistic tendencies in predicting profile membership, and profile differences in psychological well-being.SampleParticipants were 426 students from three Finnish universities.MethodsStudents responded to a survey at two timepoints over a semester. Latent profile and latent transition analyses were conducted.ResultsWe identified five distinct expectancy-value-cost profiles – Positively ambitious, Struggling ambitious, Moderately motivated, Indifferent, and Disengaged – that demonstrated substantial profile stability over a semester (transition probabilities .78–.94). Profile membership was predicted by perfectionistic tendencies; higher levels of strivings predicted the likelihood of belonging to profiles with elevated expectancies and values, whereas concerns predicted the likelihood of belonging to profiles with higher perceived costs. Students who remained in the Positively ambitious profile exhibited the most adaptive well-being, while other patterns with lower expectancies or values, or higher costs were related to compromised well-being.ConclusionsThe findings highlight the particular role of perfectionistic concerns and perceived costs in student motivation and the need to consider individual differences in teaching and educational planning.