The current study investigated the relationships between grit, self-efficacy, achievement orientation goals, and academic performance in parallel and serial mediation models. University student participants (N = 258) responded to an online survey containing demographic items and scales measuring the non-cognitive factors noted above. The results demonstrated that ‘grit’ (i.e. perseverance of effort and consistency of interest) positively associates with academic performance through a sequential pathway of mediators including self-efficacy and achievement orientation goals. Findings supported the positive relationships between mastery, approach goals, and academic performance, as well as the negative association between avoidance goals and academic performance. The model revealed that self-efficacy may play supportive and protective roles by increasing the positive effect of mastery and performance-approach goals and reducing the negative effect of avoidance goals on academic performance, respectively. These novel findings support the contribution of ‘grit’ in predicting various academic outcomes.

The current study investigated the associations between three maternal and paternal parenting styles, moral intelligence, academic self-efficacy and learning motivation in three serial mediation models. Omani adolescents enrolled in 7th to 11th grades (N = 296) responded to an online survey containing demographic items and scales measuring the variables noted above. Results of Path Analysis indicated that the three models had a good overall fit. In detail, the three paternal styles (authoritative, authoritarian and permissive) had direct associations with moral intelligence and indirect associations with learning motivation. However, only two maternal parenting styles (i.e., authoritative and authoritarian) correlated directly with learning motivation and these two styles did not associate with moral intelligence. All effects were in the hypothesized direction except the effect of authoritative maternal and paternal styles. Moral intelligence had a positive direct correlation with students’ academic self-efficacy and learning motivation. Moral intelligence also mediated the negative associations between three types of fathers’ parenting styles and students’ motivation. Academic self-efficacy had a positive association with students’ motivation. These findings provided useful insights about the various association between external factors (e.g., parenting styles), internal factors (i.e., moral intelligence and self-efficacy) and students’ motivation among adolescents in middle and high schools.

The current study explored the associations between non–cognitive science-related variables, i.e., science interest, utility, self-efficacy, science identity, and science achievement in a serial mediation model. The study also further explored the potential heterogeneity in the model parameters using one of the data-mining techniques, which is the structural equation model (SEM) Tree. Data on 14,815 high school students were obtained from a large-scale database High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09). The results highlighted science interest and science utility positively influencing science achievement through a sequential pathway of mediators, including science self-efficacy and science identity. The strength of direct effects considerably varied across students, resulting in classifying them into four subgroups. For instance, among females with a low SES subgroup, developing substantial science interest would result in better science self-efficacy and science identity that flourish science achievement. These valuable findings provide fruitful tailored recommendations, elevating the science achievement in the subgroups (146 words).

The current study adopted a person-centered approach to identify distinctive university students’ profiles based on three variables (i.e., three academic motivations, grit, and self-control), regress multiple covariates (i.e., gender, age, study level, and college) on profile membership, and estimate differences on ambiguity tolerance across the estimated profiles. Data on 525 university students were modeled using Latent Profile Analysis. The findings found three latent profiles, which were: [1] Unmotivated and undisciplined students with low grit, [2] Moderately motivated and disciplined students with average grit, and [3] Highly motivated, gritty and disciplined students. Gender, study level, and college significantly predicted profile affiliation, identifying the characteristics of students within each profile. Significant differences were revealed in the ambiguity tolerance among the obtained profiles. These valuable results offer customized recommendations and prospective initiatives, strengthening the constructive effect of proper academic motivation types, purposeful grit, and intentional self-control (143 words).

The present study examined the predictive role of students’ perceptions of parenting styles on their academic efficacy beliefs. This relationship was examined using two large sets of national data that were collected from school and university students to see how the relationship between parenting styles and academic efficacy beliefs may or may not vary across life stages. The sample included 1431 school students and 1119 university students cross the Sultanate of Oman. The participants responded to the Arabic version of the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and to the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES) constructed by the researchers. Using linear regression model for each sample, the results showed that the amount of variance in school students’ academic self-efficacy beliefs explained by parenting styles (R² adjusted = 0.21) was higher than the amount of variance explained for the university sample (R² adjusted = 0.10). The researchers concluded that the effects of parenting styles on students’ self-efficacy beliefs decrease as children grow up.

The current study investigated patterns of growth in academic achievement trajectories among American high school students (N = 12,314) that were obtained from a nationally representative, public-use dataset (the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009) in relation to key demographic information (i.e., gender, grade level, socioeconomic status [SES] in ninth grade, and ethnicity) and a distal outcome (i.e., applying for college). Unconditional growth mixture model showed that the three-class model was most appropriate in capturing the latent heterogeneity (i.e., low-achieving/increasing, moderate-achieving/decreasing, and high-achieving/slightly increasing). Two covariates (i.e., gender and SES in ninth grade) were positively associated with the intercept growth factor (i.e., initial GPA) in two of the three achievement classes (i.e., high-achieving and moderate-achieving). In contrast, two other covariates (i.e., Hispanic and African American) were negatively associated with the intercept growth factor in all of the achievement classes. The multinomial logistic regression coefficients identified an increase in the likelihood of belonging to the following achievement classes: (1) Moderate-achieving, if the students were male or African American and of low SES, (2) Low-achieving, if the students were male and of low SES, and (3) High-achieving, if the students were female and of an ethnicity other than African American and high SES. The probability of not applying for college was higher among the low-achieving and the moderate-achieving classes compared with the high-achieving class (223 words).