Predicting Motivation and Academic Performance based on Expectation-Value Theory by the Mediating Role of Benefit, Situational Cost and Psychological Cost

Relying on expectation-value theory as a guide, the study was focused on both the direct effects and mediating roles of benefit, and psychological and situational costs on academic motivation and academic performance. This study was conducted with the aim of predicting motivation and academic performance based on expectation-value theory by the mediating role of benefit, and situational and psychological costs. The research method was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of this study included all students of Bu-Ali Sina University of Hamadan city-Iran. 395 students were selected from the faculties of Economics and Social Sciences, Basic Sciences, Engineering, Literature, Agriculture, and Art as the research sample using available sampling method. The instruments were Academic Motivation Scale (Rashid & Delfan Beiranvand, 2019) and the Expectation-Value-Cost-Benefit Scale (Rashid & Delfan Beiranvand, 2023). The mean of the students’ academic performances- grade point average or GPA -in their past semesters was considered the criterion for their academic performance. The data were analyzed by path analysis with SPSS25 and LISREL software. The results indicated that the proposed model fitted the experimental data. In addition, the results of path analysis showed that the effects of expectation on motivation (β= .19, p< .01) and academic performance (β= .15, p< .05) were significant. The effects of value on motivation (β= .20, p< .01) and academic performance (β= .13, p< .05) were significant. The effect of benefit on motivation (β= .17, p< .01) was significant, while the effect of benefit on academic performance (β= .04, p> .05) was not significant. The effect of situational cost on motivation (β= -.05, p> .05) was not significant, but this effect was significant on academic performance (β= -.16, p< .05). The effects of psychological cost on motivation (β= -.22, p< .01) and academic performance (β= -.23, p< .01) were significant. Indirect hypothesis using Bootstrap test were tested. Therefore, there are important and new implications concerning the role of benefit and cost as well as expectation and value in motivation and academic performance of Iranian students.