A Cross-National Comparison of School Motivation Profiles among Canadian and Belgian Adolescents: The Role of Parenting Practices and Youth’s Mental Health

The pursuit of learning in high school generally draws on multiple sources of motivation that could be affected by learning contexts and cultural values about education. We conducted this study to capture the complex interplay between various motivational regulation strategies across countries. Our goal was threefold: (1) to identify high-schoolers’ motivation profiles using the seven types of regulation strategies proposed by the Self-Determination Theory; (2) to investigate the role of parenting practices and youth’s mental health in predicting profile membership, and (3) to investigate whether motivation profiles and their associated predictors are replicated across two cross-national samples (435 Canadian and 414 Belgian adolescents), and across two consecutive school years. Participants completed self-report questionnaires at two time points over one year. Latent profile analysis revealed three school motivation profiles that differ on quantity and quality of motivation: high quantity (highest intrinsic and extrinsic, lowest amotivation), moderately motivated (moderate intrinsic, high extrinsic, low amotivation) and poor quality (lowest intrinsic, moderately high extrinsic, highest amotivation). Youth reporting high levels of positive parenting practices (need support, warmth, monitoring) and low level of externalizing behaviors were more likely to be categorized in the high quantity than in the other two motivation profiles. The structure of the three profiles and the relationships between predictors and profile membership were generally replicated across the two samples and the two school years. The generalizability of our three-profile solution and the importance of a positive family environment and mental health in the development of school motivation in adolescence are discussed.