Achievement motivation in an ethnically diverse high school sample: An examination of the validity of the Achievement Motivation Profile (AMP)

The goal of this study was to determine whether the personality constructs of the Achievement Motivation Profile (AMP), (Mandel, Friedland & Marcus, 1996) were applicable to an ethnically diverse Canadian high school sample. Two hundred and thirty-seven participants, 167 girls and 70 boys, from grades nine through 12, with a mean age of 16.35 were recruited from the population of a metropolitan Toronto public high school. This ethnically diverse sample consisted of students who identified themselves as belonging to Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, South/Central American, South Asian, and White ethnic groups. The majority of the participants (64%) indicated that they were either immigrants or first generation Canadians. Students were group administered the AMP, the Naglieri Non-Verbal Ability Test (NNAT) (Naglieri, 1996), and a one-page Background Information Sheet (BIS). Grade point average (GPA) was also obtained for each student. Students' achievement levels were determined.

Results from the ethnically diverse sample were statistically compared to a primarily White sample (N = 512), who were selected from the AMP's larger normative sample (N = 1069) because their GPA data were available. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)