A Person-Centered Investigation of Achievement Motivation Goals and Correlates of Community College Student Achievement and Persistence

Given low rates of student retention in community colleges, there has been growing interest in understanding characteristics that put students at-risk and that serve to buffer against academic difficulty. In particular, research on student success has focused on demographic predictors that are difficult to change, whereas motivational variables—that are malleable—require greater attention. In addition, studies have utilized variable-centered approaches, but in the present study, we use a person-centered approach to identify distinct motivational profiles informed by goal-orientation theory. With a large sample of community college students, we identified five clusters and found that high levels of mastery approach goals and moderate levels of performance-approach goal orientation were the ideal combination of academic motives for grade point average and persistence.