Low Academic Intrinsic Motivation as a Risk Factor for Adverse Educational Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study from Early Childhood Through Early Adulthood

Academic intrinsic motivation forms the basis of the identification of motivational risk status. It is positively correlated to school competency. Greater academic intrinsic motivation relates to higher academic achievement, self-concept, and lower academic anxiety. This chapter examines motivation from school entry level through to early adulthood. The purpose of which is to provide evidence that low academic intrinsic motivation is a risk factor with regard to a broad array of academic outcomes over anextensive period of time. This chapter also illustrates how to identify early and intervene in such cases to maintain academic intrinsic motivation in the context of an extrinsically oriented school culture. In addition, the chapter presents possible proposals for structuring school culture to augment academic intrinsic motivation and thus reduce motivational risk.