The relationship between perceptions of the classroom goal structure and early adolescents' affect in school: The mediating role of coping strategies

This study investigates the relations among students' perceptions of the goal structure in the classroom, the self-report of coping strategies, and affect in school. We hypothesized that perceptions of a task goal structure would be associated with positive coping strategies, and in turn with positive affect; and that perceptions of an ability goal structure would be associated with projective coping, denial coping, and noncoping, and in turn with negative affect. In addition, the study takes note of hypothesized reciprocal relations among all these variables. Using a longitudinal design, surveys were administered to 880 students from 4 ethnically and economically diverse school districts in the fall and spring of the 5th grade in elementary school, and in the fall and spring of the 6th grade in middle school. The findings support the hypothesized relations as well as some reciprocal relations among these variables. The findings also indicate that perceptions of the classroom goal structure were more stable within an environment than across environments, thus supporting the role of environmental characteristics in these perceptions.