Using the Expectancy-Value Theory of Motivation to Predict Behavioral and Emotional Risk Among High School Students

Within the expectancy-value framework, much work has been done linking expectancies and task values to academic outcomes such as performance, persistence, and choice. Research on the associations between student motivation (including efficacy and task values) and behavioral and emotional problems, however, is nascent. The present study examined a structural equation model using efficacy, utility value, attainment value, and cost to predict internalizing risk and hyperactivity–distractibility risk within a sample of 5,126 high school students (76.5% African American) in a high-needs school district. The results indicated that efficacy negatively predicted both domains of risk, attainment value negatively predicted hyperactivity–distractibility risk only, and cost positively predicted both domains of risk. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed, including the relative importance of cost in the prediction of behavioral and emotional risk.