Motivazione all'impegno scolastico, attribuzioni causali e rendimento in studenti di scuola media e superiore

This study aimed at investigating the dimensions of motivation to school engagement and causal attributions. The purposes were to identify and analyze in both areas students’ differences related to age, gender and type of high school as well as the relations between types of motivations, attributions and overall school achievement. 410 students, 209 from middle school (107 girls and 102 boys) and 201 from high school (112 girls and 89 boys), participated in the study. They were administered two questionnaires, one aimed at measuring causal attributions and the other aimed at measuring motivational dimensions. Results partially confirmed our hypotheses. They revealed some of the expected connections between attributions and different types of motivations, and some differences in attributions and motivations due to age, gender and their interaction. Moreover, overall school achievement correlated with some types of attributions and motivational dimensions.