High school students’ academic development linked to achievement emotions over time

School students experience a wide range of achievement emotions during the years they spend attending school. Some of those emotions, such as joy and pride, are positive. Yet students also experience boredom and anger when they find achievement activities too difficult or too easy. These differing emotions are important for adolescents' development trajectories. Researchers from the University of Tübingen therefore asked - how do achievement emotions develop during adolescence? The research team, led by Professor Michiko Sakaki and Professor Kou Murayama from the Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, focused on the achievement domain of mathematics, where previous research indicates that students experience fewer positive emotions and more negative ones. For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 3,425 students in grades five to nine at vocational and academic high schools in Bavaria. The adolescents were surveyed annually from 2002 to 2006 about their emotions in relation to math.