title: On the hierarchical structure of self-determined motivation: a test of top-down, bottom-up, reciprocal, and horizontal effects.
abstract: This article aimed to test some hypotheses about the hierarchical structure of self-determined motivation in two longitudinal studies. First, the authors verified the stability of global self-determined motivation and school self-determined motivation over time. Second, they tested top-down, bottom-up, reciprocal, and horizontal effects between global self-determined motivation and school self-determined motivation. In Study 1, 122 college students were evaluated on two occasions with a 5-year interval on their global and school self-determined motivation. In Study 2, 294 college students were evaluated on the same variables with a 1-year interval. Results from both studies revealed that (a) global self-determined motivation was not more stable than self-determined school motivation over time and (b) a cross-lag model including reciprocal effects between self-determined global and self-determined school motivation offered the best fit indices comparatively to a model involving only horizontal (or stability) effects. Discussion emphasizes the theoretical implications of the results.
authors.affiliation: Département des fondements et pratiques en éducation, Faculté des sciences de l'éducation, Université Laval, Ste-Foy, Québec. frederic.guay@fse.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guay
authors.forename: Geneviève A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Mageau
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Vallerand
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires