Academic motivation scale for elementary students: validity and reliability evidences

Abstract

Motivation is an important variable at school settings because it guides the student’s behavior (^{Amrai et al., 2011}). Accordingly, several instruments have been constructed for their measurement, however, only a few of them are oriented to assess it in children. Therefore, the aim of this study was to obtain evidence of the validity and the reliability of a scale to assess motivation in this population. This research was organized in three steps: a) qualitative study, b) design of the scale and c) psychometric analysis. Through a non-probabilistic sampling, 527 students from fourth to sixth grade of elementary school participated. This process resulted in a scale of 16 items with evidence of content, criterion and construct validity. The instrument has three factors; a) persistence, b) effort and c) dedication to pass exams, the explained variance is 55% and the overall Cronbach’s alpha of 0.90.