Universite Clermont Auvergne.
J Soc Psychol. 2020 Jul 3;160(4):496-508. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2019.1681353. Epub 2019 Oct 22.
Recent research has shown that lower social class students are more likely to endorse performance-avoidance goals (i.e., the fear of performing poorly) than higher-class students, particularly in situations of success. The purpose of the present research is, first, to test the upward mobility process as a moderator of the link between social class and performance-avoidance goal endorsement. The second aim is to document the further impact of this process on academic performance. Two hundred and fifteen high school students ( = 17.40, = 0.69) participated in the experiment. Half of them were randomly assigned to a "mobility salience" condition where they completed a mobility perception scale; while the other half completed a neutral scale. Then, they answered performance-avoidance goal items and solved mathematics, physics and life and earth sciences exercises. Results indicated that the salience of the mobility process increased the effect of social class on both performance-avoidance goal endorsement and mathematic performance. In addition, performance-avoidance goals appeared to be a mediator of the interaction effect between social class and the salience of the mobility process on mathematics performance. No such findings were obtained for physics and life and earth sciences. Taken together, these results support the idea that the prospect of experiencing mobility may be one of the mechanisms behind the difficulties encountered by lower-class students in an academic context.
最近的研究表明，与高社会阶层的学生相比，低社会阶层的学生更有可能支持表现回避目标（即害怕表现不佳），尤其是在成功的情况下。本研究的目的首先是检验向上流动过程作为社会阶层与表现回避目标支持之间联系的调节因素。第二个目的是记录这一过程对学业成绩的进一步影响。215 名高中生（ = 17.40， = 0.69）参加了实验。其中一半被随机分配到“流动凸显”条件下，他们完成了流动感知量表；而另一半则完成了中性量表。然后，他们回答了回避表现目标的项目，并解决了数学、物理和生命与地球科学的练习。结果表明，流动过程的凸显度增加了社会阶层对回避表现目标和数学成绩的影响。此外，回避表现目标似乎是社会阶层和流动过程凸显度对数学成绩的交互作用的中介。对于物理和生命与地球科学，没有发现这样的结果。总的来说，这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即体验流动的前景可能是低社会阶层学生在学术环境中遇到困难的机制之一。
