Relationships among locus of control, academic engagement, and achievement motivation in Chinese adolescents

Previous studies have revealed the effect of locus of control on academic engagement and achievement motivation, but the role that achievement motivation plays in the relationship between the other two variables for Chinese adolescents has remained unclear. We conducted two studies to explore this issue. In Study 1 we used standardized scales to measure locus of control (Internal–External Control Scale), academic engagement (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale–Student), and achievement motivation (Achievement Motivation Scale) among 1,811 middle school students. In Study 2 we intervened in the participants’ achievement motivation by way of group counseling to further check the effect on their academic engagement. We randomly recruited 64 students from the same school for control and experimental groups and constructed a relationship model among the three variables of locus of control, academic engagement, and achievement motivation. Results demonstrated that intervention in achievement motivation can effectively enhance the academic engagement of middle school students.