School motivation in Hong Kong: Gender and year level differences

This presentation is based on a normative study undertaken in Hong Kong in 2009. There search questions were: (1) What is the profile of school motivation for primary and secondary students? (2) Are there differences in motivation across year levels? (3) Are there gen-der differences? The study sample comprised 9,888 students from 215 primary schools, and 14,297 students from 152 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Students’ motivation was measured using the Inventory of School Motivation (Chinese version). All subscales were found to have good psychometric properties and with acceptable Cronbach’s alpha. Motivation decreases with an increase in year level. There were significant gender differences in all subscales except Token, favoring females for Affiliation, Effort, Social Concern and Task motivation for all year levels. Males scored higher on Competition for all year levels. Females scored higher in Social Power and in Praise only after Primary 5. Implications for teachers are discussed.