School motivation of boys and girls: Differences of degree, differences of kind, or both?

The present study sought to explore invariance in factor structure, cluster profiles, and perceptual mapping in student motivation as a function of gender. Among a sample of 2,927 Australian high school students, motivation differences were explored using the Student Motivation Scale (Martin, 2001, 2002a, 2002b). The data clearly show that there are differences in the degree to which boys and girls are motivated, although generally effect sizes are small. Girls are statistically significantly higher in learning focus, planning, study management, and persistence while boys are significantly higher in self-sabotage or self-handicapping. Interestingly, girls are also significantly higher in anxiety. However, across boys and girls there is invariance in factor structure, cluster profiles, and perceptual mapping suggesting that there are no fundamental motivational differences of kind. That is, in relation to key facets of motivation, there is a highly similar factor structure across boys and girls, boys and girls can be grouped into parallel motivation clusters, and boys and girls seem to perceptually locate key motivational dimensions in similar ways. It is concluded that although girls have higher levels of motivation than boys on a number of dimensions, the two groups' fundamental motivation orientations do not appear to be markedly qualitatively different. This holds implications not only for data analysis but also for programmatic intervention aimed at enhancing or sustaining boys' and girls' motivation.