Students’ intentions to persist in, versus dropout of high school: what self-determined motivation tells us about it?

High school dropout represents an important problem that affects thousands of students each year, and has obvious psychological, economical, and social ramifications. One factor in a student's decision to dropout of school may be motivation. Teachers play important role in helping students develop motivational resources through the provision of autonomy-supportive classrooms. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of behavioral regulation and competence to students’ intention to persist in, versus drop out of, high school. The authors argue more self-determined forms motivations could positively predict the intention of students to persist in, versus drop out of, high school. The subjects were 318 Iranian 9th grade students. All subjects completed academic self–regulation questionnaire, perceived competence scale and intention to persist in high school questionnaire. The results of regression analysis showed that more self-determined forms of behavioral regulation predict the intention of students to persist in high school. The results indicated students’ intentions to persist in high school increase with more self-determined forms of behavioral regulation and more perceived competence in classroom. The results also yielded an interesting finding that identified regulation did not predict students’ dropout intention. With respect to intention to persist in high school, these results highlight the importance of taking into account the fostering of perceived competence and more self-determined forms of behavioral regulation.

Behavioral regulations ,

competence ,

dropout of school ,

self-determination theory ,