Social Achievement Goals and Prosocial and Aggressive Behavior:

Junior High School Students

Abstract

  The purpose of the present research was to (a) develop a Social Achievement Goals Scale for Junior High School Students and confirm the reliability and validity of the scale, (b) examine relations between social achievement goals and prosocial and aggressive behavior, and (c) examine moderators of the relation between social performance-approach goals and aggressive behavior. Junior high school students (N=965) completed a questionnaire. The results of factor analysis suggested that the Social Achievement Goals Scale consisted of 4 factors: "social mastery-approach goals", "social mastery-avoidance goals", "social performance-approach goals", and "social performance-avoidance goals". In addition, path analysis revealed that social mastery-approach goals had positive effects on prosocial behavior and negative effects on aggressive behavior. Social mastery-avoidance goals had positive effects on prosocial behavior and negative effects on relational aggressive behavior. Social performance-approach goals had positive effects on prosocial behavior and physical aggressive behavior. Social performance-avoidance goals had negative effects on prosocial behavior and positive effects on relational aggressive behavior. Moreover, hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that social mastery-approach goals moderate positive relations between social performance-approach goals and aggressive behavior.