Structural Modeling of the Role of Attachment Styles on Students’ Academic Motivation Mediated by Academic Self-efficacy

Academic motivation has always been considered by researchers and specialists in educational psychology as a critical and essential aspect of education. With motivation, students follow the necessary mobility to successfully finish an assignment and reach a goal by demonstrating a specific level of proficiency in their work to finally acquire the essential learning and academic success. This study aimed to evaluate the structural modeling of the role of attachment styles among students mediated by academic self-efficacy.

This analytical cross-sectional research was conducted using structural equations. The research population included all high school students (n=3057) in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades living in Gonabad City, Iran, in 2019-2020, of whom 1646 were girls and 1411 boys. A total of 250 students were selected by multi-stage cluster random sampling method based on principles of structural equations sampling. After obtaining informed consent, all participants completed the situational motivation scale, the Morgan-Jinks student attachment styles, the cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire, revised adult attachment scale, and the classroom environments questionnaire. Then, the data were collected and analyzed through the Pearson correlation method and structural equations in SPSS software version 19 and AMOS version 20.

Academic self-efficacy (0.20) and attachment styles (-0.15) directly and significantly affected academic motivation. In addition, attachment styles (-0.23) had a direct and significant effect on academic self-efficacy. There was an indirect relationship between emotional regulation (-0.07) and mediated academic self-efficacy on academic motivation (P<0.01).

The attachment styles model owes a good fit to students’ academic motivation with the mediating role of academic self-efficacy. Therefore, the awareness of teachers, parents, principals, and other educational experts can improve students’ academic motivation.