How Do Young Adults Orchestrate Their Multiple Achievement-Related Goals? Associations of Achievement Goal Orientations With Identity Formation and Goal Appraisals

Young adults strive for multiple achievement goals. Frameworks for achievement goal orientations, personal goals, and identity formation have emphasized the role of goal-specific exploration and commitment in the interpretation of goals. However, researchers have yet to combine these different perspectives in an empirical study. Therefore, to explore the processes involved in the selection of multiple goals, the present study investigated the associations of young adults’ achievement goal orientations (mastery-intrinsic, mastery-extrinsic, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and work-avoidance orientations) with distinct styles of exploring and committing to goals, by considering different dimensions of identity formation (commitment making, identification with commitment, exploration in breadth, exploration in depth, and ruminative exploration) and achievement-related personal goal appraisals (commitment, effort, and progress). Latent change score models were applied to a longitudinal sample of 577 young Finns followed from age 23 to 25 to investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with achievement goal orientations. The analyses revealed significant associations of identification with commitment and exploration in breadth and goal effort with the initial levels of mastery-intrinsic and mastery-extrinsic orientations. Notably, these dimensions of identity formation, goal effort, and mastery goal orientations accentuate motives for self-development and self-improvement. Although the associations were not supported by the longitudinal analyses, it seems fruitful to integrate different theoretical frameworks to further the understanding of the underlying processes in the pursuit of multiple goals.