The Role of Writing Motives in the Interplay Between Implicit Theories, Achievement Goals, Self-efficacy, and Writing Performance

It is well established that students' motivation for writing is a key predictor of their writing performance. The aim of the current study is to study and map the relations underlying different motivational constructs (i.e., implicit theories, achievement goals, self-efficacy, and writing motives) and to investigate how these contribute to students' writing performance. For that, 390 Flemish students in stage three of the academic track of secondary education (16-18  years old) completed questionnaires measuring their implicit theories of writing, achievement goals, self-efficacy for writing, and writing motives. Furthermore, they completed an argumentative writing test. Path analysis revealed statistically significant direct paths from (1) entity beliefs of writing to performance avoidance goals ( = 0.23), (2) mastery goals to self-efficacy for writing (  = 0.14,  = 0.25,  = 0.18), performance-approach goals to self-efficacy for writing (  = 0.38,  = 0.21,  = 0.25), and performance-avoidance goals to self-efficacy for writing (  = -0.30,  = -0.24,  = -0.28), (3) self-efficacy for regulation to both autonomous ( = 0.20) and controlled motivation ( = -0.15), (4) mastery goals to autonomous motivation ( = 0.58), (5) performance approach and avoidance goals to controlled motivation ( = 0.18;  = 0.35), and (6) autonomous motivation to writing performance ( = 0.11). This study moves the field of writing motivation research forward by studying the contribution of implicit theories, achievement goals, and self-efficacy to students' writing performance, via writing motives.