Exploring the relationship between achievement need and flow in high school students

Abstract

Academic engagement is the focus, interest, effort, energy and time that students are willing to spend in their learning activities or tasks. It is a question whether academic engagement can be induced by a motivational force namely achievement need, the concern for achieving excellence through individual efforts. This study investigates the role of achievement need in predicting flow in high school students. This study used a preliminary data involving 94 high school students aged sixteen attending two different secondary schools. Students responded to a questionnaire set consisting of a subscale measuring flow and another measuring achievement need. Simple linear regression analysis found that for high school students in this study, achievement need significantly predicts flow. When examined in detail, standard multiple regression analysis found that only two out of three dimensions of achievement need significantly predict flow: commitment and competition. Accomplishment was not found to be a significant predictor to high school students' academic engagement. It is suggested that parents and teachers need to emphasize this achievement need motivation in students so that they become intrinsically motivated and subsequently go into flow when doing their academic tasks to achieve better performance.