Chapter 5: Day-to-Day Variation in Competence Beliefs: How Autonomy Support Predicts Young Adolescents’ Felt Competence

A large body of research shows that students benefit from strong beliefs in their own abilities and capacities in a variety of respects (e.g., Bandura, 1997; Harter, 2006; Marsh, 1990). Higher competence beliefs are associated with better self-regulation and higher cognitive engagement during learning (Pintrich, 2003) and lead to better performance (Marsh & Craven, 2006). They have also been shown to predict a variety of desirable educational outcomes, such as academic achievement, interests, and effort on homework (e.g., Marsh, Trautwein, Lüdtke, Köller, & Baumert, 2005; Trautwein, Lüdtke, Köller, & Baumert, 2006a; Trautwein, Lüdtke, Schnyder, & Niggli, 2006b). Although various conceptualizations of competence beliefs exist in the literature (e.g., self-concept, self-efficacy, expectancy-beliefs; see Wigfield, Eccles, Schiefele, Roeser, & Davis-Kean, 2006), they are generally assumed to be rather stable personal characteristics. Empirical research on longitudinal rank-order stability supports this view (e.g., Marsh & Yeung, 1998).